Camp Cretaceous: What Do We Do Now?

by Ecaetheerein

We thought it'd be fun… We thought we'd be safe… But we didn't realize the horror waiting for us on the island. Claws, teeth, screaming… so much screaming. But despite the challenges, we survived the night. Well... some of us. And now that we've been left on the island, we're faced with the challenge of surviving until help arrives... If it arrives...

52. Ep52 Happy Birthday, yaz

Author's note:

SORRY! Sorry about taking so long with this one. Sometimes this chapter felt like more trouble than it was worth... but I pushed through and am pretty happy with the end result... Might not be later, but hopefully this was worth all the trouble.

Posting date... I'll say June 1st, which gives me about a month... Hopefully that will be enough to write the next chapter. Not really any warnings this chapter... Although this one... It's not what you'll expect, and the effects of this chapter will change the future. Let's just say:

"This... changes... everything."

Enjoy this belate chapter!

---

"Alright, let's pack up quickly," Mr. Fadoula says, loading up the van they loaned from the Gutierrez's. The Texan family had multiple cars to spare, and the Fadoula's couldn't carry all the kids in their mini van. "It's a three hour drive there."

Yasmina glares at her family from her spot on the bench. She had her hair pulled back in a French braid, save for the lone wisp that kept getting in her eyes. She had on a maroon-ish colored, workout tank top and jean shorts. One lone flip flop replaced her usual sneaker. "Are we bringing Roxie?" She uses her head to motion to the crazy husky currently sitting on Sammy's lap, snapping at the parapelgic.

"No, too much hassle," her mother says, reprimanding their dog and pulling her off of Sammy's lap. The husky merely sits down, mouth open as she pants happily.

"Are you sure?" the athlete asks, distrustingly.

Her mother sighs. "Do you really think I want to deal with a dog on top of Kenji?"

She motions to the alpha male, dressed in a blue and pink Hawaiian shirt, turquoise blue pants, and the sunglasses that drove the trackstar nuts. "Arf?" he responds comically.

"Button it all the way," Yasmina orders, wobbling on her right leg to button the top of his shirt. She soon realized that there were two missing buttons at the top. "Where'd they go?"

"They came off a long time ago when I pretended to be Superman," he grins.

"Then why are you wearing it? It's exposing your chest," Yasmina frowns.

"Exactly," he winks, giving her finger guns and making her roll her eyes.

"He was insistent about wearing a Hawaiian floral shirt to the beach," Darius explains. His attire was gray shorts and a black, white, and reddish brown striped tank top. Black flip flops and sunglasses he borrowed from Kenji complete his outfit.

"Really?" Yasmina crosses her arms.

"What do you have against these sunglasses?" Darius grins sheepishly.

"Kenji," she merely glares.

"Aw, can I have a pair?" Sammy asks, squinting in the morning sun. She had a strawberry jam colored, flowy shirt, with matching pants. White flowers decorated the red color. The sleeves and bottom were loose and breezy; the shirt was cropped, but you couldn't tell when she was sitting in her wheelchair. "Roxie destroyed my old sunglasses," she sighs, holding up her nice—but broken—pair of sunglasses.

"Hooman or doggo?" Kenji asks, handing her a pair from his seemingly magical pocket.

"Doggo," she says.

Kenji's eyes wander around the sky before landing on the suitcase. He moves over to continue loading the car, a slight blush creeping onto his face.

Sammy quirks an eyebrow before she notices Yasmina glaring at her. The athlete pinches the top of her tank top discreetly.

The cowgirl looks down to find that Roxie had exposed more of her chest than Sammy wanted when the husky was snapping at her. The top of her attire was a loose V-neck that exposed more than she was usually comfortable with if the strings weren't tied. The Fadoula's husky had pulled the strings undone. "Whoops," she chuckles, glaring at the dog pointedly.

"Party time!" Brooklynn exclaims, approaching the group. She had a white, pheasant crop top that moved in the breeze. Light blue jean shorts and brown sandals. Light pink sunglasses and her black eyepatch completed the look. Her hot pink hair was pulled into a messy bun that looked kind of like a spider. "Kapow!" she pumps her fist.

"Who's riding with who?" Ben asks, coming up behind her. He had a white button down shirt and khaki pants.

"I figured I'd take Ghaleb, Habeeba, and Jabari in one car while the rest of you can ride in Sammy's van," Mrs. Fadoula says. "Unless you guys want to switch it up."

"I don't think we have room for seven of us in the minivan," Sammy says. "Someone will have to ride with the sibs."

Yasmina and Ben meet eyes for a moment. "I'll ride with my siblings," the athlete says quickly.

"Really?" her step-father says, a bit surprised.

"I won't be able to draw or anything if I'm riding with my friends," she says quickly, hopping in her family's car.

"A.K.A. if I want to talk to you, I can't listen to music because I'm so bothered by sounds," Jabari sneers, earning a slap to the back of his head.

"Which implies you won't be interacting with us," Ghaleb protests.

"Exactly," she says, giving him finger guns.

Darius, Brooklynn, Sammy, and Kenji glance at each other and shrug. "Guess whatever's going on between her and you-know-who still isn't solved," the wild Kenji mutters as they hop in the Gutierrez van.

The first hour and a half resulted in antics, stories and April Fools plans. "Okay, we can't just leave Yaz alone on her birthday," Kenji declares. "Today is the perfect opportunity to prank her!"

"It's her birthday," Ben protests.

"It's her fault she was born on April first," the alpha male shrugs.

"Technically, that would be her Mom's fault," Sammy says.

"No, I think usually the baby decides when to be born," Brooklynn squints, wondering if she remembered that correctly.

"Anyway, we have to pull some practical jokes on her!" Kenji insists. "Loki time!"

"Nothing too mean," Mr. Fadoula says from the driver's seat. "She's still mad about the March thirty-first prank we pulled."

"Pfft, I can handle her anger," Kenji rolls her eyes. "This day gives me ample opportunity to annoy her!"

"What's the difference between today and every other day?" Brooklynn quips.

"Today, I have an excuse," he grins.

Halfway there, the group stops at a gas station to pee and stretch their legs. The next stretch of the journey resulted in a couple of April Fools gags. "Annnnnd she figured it out," Brooklynn laughs after checking her texts.

"What did she say?" Kenji grins mischievously.

"Nothing Sammy would be proud of," the pinkette smirks.

"Per usual," the cowgirl shrugs.

Darius and Kenji looked out their side of the car at the Fadoula's minivan. Yasmina was glaring out the window at them. Brooklynn had managed to swipe her unlocked phone while the athlete was using the restroom, and Kenji messed around with her music. He also happened to add a Rickroll here or there.

About ten minutes later, the Fadoula children pulled a fun gag. Darius turned to look at their car when he noticed Ghaleb was holding up a cardboard sign. "Huh?" he grunts, murmuring to himself as he read it.

Kenji turns to read it. "We're naked from the waist down…" he mumbles before wheezing hysterically. The campers and Mr. Fadoula had a good laugh over that, though no one thought it was funnier than the alpha male.

The group finally arrives at Sammy's aunt's beach house. It was a cute little beach house; it stood on stilts for safety. A small storage shed rested underneath the house in the back, and there was ample room in front of the shed to park both cars. Behind the shed and underneath the back deck was a bench swing. On top of the stilts stood the bright blue house with white trim. Stairs on the right side led up to the house and the front deck. "Aww, it's so cute," Brooklynn remarks, stepping out.

"Everybody help carry stuff into the house," Mrs. Fadoula instructs.

"Hey! I'm not stuff!" Yasmina protests as Ghaleb flips her upside-down and carries her up the stairs to the deck.

The group laughs as Kenji does the same with Sammy, though a bit more gently. The rest of the campers and family grabbed backpacks and bags and carried them in. After a bit of fiddling with the lock, the group heads inside. The door leads into a wide room. On the right side was the kitchen area and the left side held the couches and TV. The walls were a sea foam green color. Wooden, decorative flip flops and paintings of the sea brightened the wall.

Down the hall were three rooms. The first one was lavender and contained a bunk bed. Across from it was a coral-colored bathroom. Next to the lavender room was a larger room painted the same color as the bathroom. A decorative seahorse was hung on the wall above the bed. The third room across from the coral room was the same blue as the outside and held a king-sized bed. The blue room held a small bathroom. Both the blue and coral rooms had doors leading to the back deck.

"I love it!" Brooklynn smiles, enjoying how cute the house was.

"I wanna sleep on the bunk beds!" Habeeba exclaims.

"What are you two doin'?" Sammy laughs.

Kenji was sitting on the floor holding onto his legs as Darius took his feet and dragged him around the kitchen. The two were cackling as they go. Brooklynn laughs as she follows them, videoing.

"We'll have to decide who's sleeping where," Mrs. Fadoula says as she begins to unload the food that needed to go in the fridge.

Yasmina gasps with delight. "Pizza!" she whispers as she sees the frozen pizza boxes.

"Ding, ding, ding, pija!" Kenji exclaims. "Peuraenchaijeu bonjeomcheoreom!"

"What?" Jabari tilts his head as Darius laughs.

"Enough!" Yasmina exclaims. "I know you're speaking Korean!"

"Oh, so he's already started that gag," Brooklynn mutters amusedly to Sammy. The wild Kenji had decided to try to fit as many Kpop references in as possible during the day just to annoy the trackstar.

Once they were finished unloading groceries, the sorting out of rooms began. "Alright, blue room is the parents room," Mr. Fadoula declares.

"I wanna sleep on the top bunk bed!" Habeeba exclaims.

"No, I want the top!" Jabari protests.

While the two younger siblings bicker, Mrs. Fadoula sighs. "What about girls room versus boys room?"

"How about campers room and sibling room?" Darius suggests. "We get the orange room and Jabari and Habeeba can work out who gets the top bunk."

"Six kids in one bed?" Mr. Fadoula lifts an eyebrow.

"Reminds me of sleeping on the island," Brooklynn says. "In a good way."

Yasmina cringes but quickly agrees. "Yeah, if the others want to share a room, that's fine…"

"There's also the couch if we need more room," Sammy says. "I think it can be turned into a bed."

"If there's not enough room, I can sleep there," Ben offers.

"Or we kick Yaz out," Kenji smirks.

"Nah, kick you out," Ghaleb snorts. "She's the birthday girl."

"Okay… if you guys want to share a bed, we'll see how that works," Mrs. Fadoula shakes her head. "It's only one night, I guess."

After settling the sibling dispute over the top bunk—the top bed was only big enough for one while the bottom could fit two people—the group unpacks and gets ready to go down to the beach. The three camper boys take about five minutes in the coral room to get dressed in swimsuits and be ready. After them, the girls take their turn.

"Are you okay, Yaz?" Brooklynn asks, slipping on her bikini top. "You look a bit… sick."

The athlete sits on the edge of the bed, gripping the mattress tightly with her hands. Her jaw was set and she looked a bit queasy. "Just… worried…"

"Are you that worried about being pranked?" Sammy asks, struggling with the multiple straps on her top.

"No…" Yasmina mumbles.

"Are you feeling depressed?" the pinkette asks.

"A bit, but that's not… the problem…" the athlete murmurs.

"Anxious?" the cowgirl asks.

The athlete nods.

"About what?" Brooklynn asks.

Yasmina doesn't answer.

The other two girls try to guess. "You're worried about the water being cold?" Sammy suggests.

"You're anxious about the water in general because of PTSD?" Brooklynn suggests, making Sammy shudder.

"No…" Yasmina mumbles.

"You're anxious about being able to swim with your leg?" Sammy asks.

"No…" the athlete murmurs.

"You're anxious about growing up?" Brooklynn shrugs.

"You're worried about losing your swimsuit in the water?" Sammy blinks.

"You're worried about starting your period while at the beach, completely unprepared?" the pinkette tries again.

Yasmina barks out a nervous laugh. "I wish…"

"You wish what?" Sammy asks. "Wish that that's what you're worried about or wish that that would happen?"

"Pfft, don't be ridiculous," Brooklynn rolls her eyes. "Who would want her period to start at the beach unprepared?"

"Someone who's missed a month…" Yasmina whispers.

"Oh, come on, that happens to every girl," Brooklynn smirks. "Besides, yours is irregular, anyway. You've skipped months before, right?"

"Yeah, but not like this…" the athlete whimpers.

"You're athletic and going through a lot of stress," the pinkette shrugs. "It's not uncommon for your cycle to get messed up."

"Yeah, but…" the athlete stutters. "What if it's not that…"

"What if you're pregnant?" Brooklynn suggests.

Yasmina gives her a look of horror. "Do you think?"

"Pfff, I'm pretty sure every girl thinks that from time to time," Sammy chuckles. "I swear, I can be as pure as snow, but if I go a week without my period when it's supposed to come, I start to worry that I'm pregnant. I get all nervous that somehow somebody did something to me or that I'm the next Virgin Mary."

"Heh, heh, yeah, I get that," Brooklynn chuckles softly. "C'mon, Yaz, you don't have to be anxious. You're not like Sammy where you have to worry about holy pregnancies and I'm pretty sure there's no physical explanation for how you could be pregnant."

"Pretty sure?" Yasmina stutters. "Not completely sure?"

"Come on, Miss-Anti-romantic is surely a virgin," Brooklynn scoffs.

Yasmina looks even sicker.

"What she means is, you can't possibly be pregnant," Sammy steps in. "What happened years ago can't be affecting you right now. Er, in this way, I mean."

Yasmina pulls her legs up to her chest. "Yeah…"

"Yaz, it's okay, I'm positive you're not pregnant," Brooklynn says. "It's a nightmare—the idea that you're a teen Mom—but you'd have to have been with a man to be pregnant. You're safe."

Yasmina doesn't move or say a thing.

Brooklynn's face turns solemn. "You… You are safe… right?"

"D-Define safe?" Yasmina stutters, refusing to look up.

"Yasmina," Sammy says warningly and concernedly.

"Safe as in, never slept with a guy within the past… two months, should we say?" Brooklynn narrows her eyes.

The athlete takes too long to answer. "Yeah, yeah… No, I'm safe…"

"And somehow, I don't believe that…" Sammy mumbles.

The pinkette's face turns pale. "Wait… This doesn't have anything to do with you and Ben's recent beha—"

"WAH!" Yasmina grunts, scrambling to get off the bed and falling flat on her face. She quickly jumps up and claps her hand over Brooklynn's mouth. "Shut uP!" she hisses, voice cracking.

Sammy catches on. "You… You two didn't!"

"It's fine! It's fine!" Yasmina insists, letting go of Brooklynn and holding up her hands. "Nothing happened! Everything's fine!"

"Yaz?" the cowgirl lifts an eyebrow worryingly.

"I'm fine, I…" the athlete stutters, turning around for a second before whipping back around to face her friends. "A-April fools! Heheh, I-I got you guys! You-you thought I… and we… yeah… Heh…"

Her friends stare at her in shock. "You didn't," Brooklynn whispers.

"It's fine, there's nothing to worry about," Yasmina insists forcefully.

"You don't seem fine," Sammy bites her lip.

Yasmina sighs and flops down on the bed, covering her face.

Brooklynn sits down next to her. "Yaz, tell us what's going on."

Yasmina peeks out at her through her fingers. "Your jean shorts go really well with your top."

"Don't go changing the subject," Brooklynn says grimly.

"You do the same thing," Yasmina mutters.

"Yaz," Sammy says warningly.

The athlete groans frustratedly. "I… I'm not… not a virgin… By choice."

"And it's with?" Brooklynn lifts an eyebrow.

Yasmina bites her lip before sighing. "Ben…"

"And you're serious?" Sammy asks, hardly able to believe it.

"Unfortunately…" she mumbles.

"You've got some mad explaining to do," Brooklynn says. "I mean, you're Yaz! You're against romance! You're scared of sex! And now you're telling us that you and Ben did it?"

"I know, I know, I know!" the athlete groans. "Sometimes I can't even believe it… I don't want to believe it…"

"You're kidding, aren't you?" Brooklynn glares.

"I wish…" Yasmina mumbles. "I… Where do I start…?"

"From the beginning," Sammy directs. "You're extremely against romance… even to the point where you're afraid of sex. How did you get over that fear?"

Yasmina mutters incoherent gibberish that could possibly be curse words. "That's when it started… So… Um… You know how when I figured out how to overcome depression, I overcame a lot of other things? Started the ball rolling with my prosthetic, talked with my Mom, addressed fears and insecurities… Well… um…"

"You faced that one, too?" Brooklynn asks incredulously.

"Sort of?" Yasmina winces. "So… I got my prosthetic leg order put in and you guys came over after and found me working out, right? Then later that night I stayed at Ben's house… Then the next day I faced my extended family."

"Yeah…" Sammy murmurs.

"Well…" the athlete whispers, tearing up a bit. "That night, we… You know…"

"What changed?" Brooklynn asks. "You and Ben are both against the idea. Now you're telling me both of you suddenly decided, 'Hey, you know what would be a good idea? We should have sex!'"

"Shh!" Yasmina snaps, clapping her hand over Brooklynn's mouth. "Not so loud!"

The pinkette rolls her eyes.

"Well…" the athlete groans, stalling. "So… We were hanging out, me and his family in the living room. We were talking about the benefits of having a prosthetic leg, I think. His parents went to clean the kitchen after dinner or something… Ben and I were left on the couch—"

"You two did it on the couch?!" Sammy asks in disbelief.

"No, let me finish!" Yasmina snaps, sitting up. "Anyway, I… I started opening up to him…"

The four talked a bit longer before the parents got up to clean up. Yasmina curled up closer to Ben on the couch, leaning her head on his shoulder and snuggling in close. She could see a pink tint creep onto his face out of the upper corner of her eye. "I wonder what he's thinking about," she wondered. "I wonder what he sees in me…"

"He would be a nice guy to settle down with…" a thought came along.

Yasmina had to purse her lips to keep from giggling. "Where did that come from?!" She thought. Sure, he was a nice guy. Very sweet and loving and understanding. Ben was also strong and brave when he had to be. He was laid back and chilled and always seemed to understand her.

But she didn't like him in that way… right?

The thought sparked a memory to resurface. "Oh, Ben, there's something I've been meaning to talk about…" she said softly. "I need to say it now while I'm thinking about it, otherwise it will be too late someday…"

"O-okay," he stuttered.

"I…" she murmured, choosing her words carefully. "You mean a lot to me. More than I can say. Seriously. I owe my life to you. I owe a lot of my mental healing to you. When I've struggled with my insecurities, fears, and problems, you've been there to help me slowly figure them out. I…"

She began to stutter out of nervousness; opening up this deeply was still strange ground for her. But his sweet and encouraging, yet shy smile made her feel safe… a little tingly inside, too. "I'm very lucky to have you. I know I can be extremely difficult sometimes, and I pull away and don't open up… Even then, you're still here and still have your arms open wide. You don't ask for anything in return… I just… It's kind of hard to understand your unconditional love."

"It's not unconditional," Ben said. "I'm not perfect… It's just very hard for you to push me away."

"Because you care so much for me…" Yasmina said, a warm feeling melting away her stress. "I… I've never had a friend like you… You're… You're very special to me. Opening up and saying how I feel isn't easy for me sometimes, but… I'm really grateful for you. I want you to always be in my life… no matter how that is… Whether we're friends or… I just… I… The thought of losing you…"

"Why do you think you'd lose me?" Ben asked.

"Because…" she bit her lip. "I lost Leah and Riley… I'm scared that I'll lose my family and sometimes I'm worried I'll lose you guys… Whether it's through death or a falling out, or…"

Fear started to creep in and she shivered. "I just… I was thinking the other day… I… I don't know why I was thinking of this, but… You're… You're a great guy and you're not going to be single forever. You're amazing and someday, someone is going to see that and… I don't know. The thought kinda scares me. I'm not sure why…"

A flicker of hope appeared in Ben's eyes.

"I don't like the idea of romance…" she muttered. "But… I don't know… Maybe it's because everyone keeps shipping us… Maybe I feel pressure to be married someday and the thought of it being anyone but you scares me… I don't… I… I don't know if I actually… want to get married… I'm not sure if I have a crush on you… Or if this is pressure from other people… But the idea of you marrying someone else makes me feel a bit jealous and fearful…"

The two changed positions so that they could see eye to eye. Ben's posture was slightly slouched like he used to do before the Indominus broke out. Why was it suddenly endearing? "I… I don't know how I feel…"

"I can't tell you how you feel," Ben shrugged. "I know what I would want you to feel, but if that's not how you feel, then I'm not going to pressure you. I'm not going to put words in your mouth."

"I… I think I want to love you," Yasmina admitted. "But… I don't know…"

"I will always love you," he smiled. "You're my best friend and I don't think there's anything you can do to change that. I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you want to be something more, I'd be that. If you just want to be friends, I'm more than willing to stay friends with you. I will not pressure you to be anything to me that you don't want to be."

Yasmina nodded, a small tear slipping out. "I… I want to love you… In a way, I want to… to experience that. And by that, I mean love. I… I don't think I've experienced love the way other people have. I have a hard time understanding love from a parent. I understand sibling love and sibling/friend love…"

"A.K.A. threatening to castrate Kenji," Ben butted in with a laugh.

"Yeah," she chuckled. "But… I guess I understand sibling love the most. Ghaleb and I have always been close, and me, Habeeba, and Jabari have always had a relationship… But my relationship with my Mom can be broken sometimes… And I struggle to have a relationship with any father figure… I struggle with friends because of what Leah did… I just…"

"It sounds like you're scared to step out and create a new relationship," he said. "You want a relationship, but stepping out and making yourself vulnerable is hard. That's why you're closest with your siblings. They've been there for as long as you can remember. You didn't really have to step out, at least, not in your mind. They were just there. That's how it should've been with your parents, but your Father destroyed that trust in any father figure, and your Mother's inability to stand up broke your trust in her."

"Yeah," Yasmina nodded. "You… You know me too well… I… I wish I could be like Sammy. She seems so in love with Kenji. I wish I could be like her Mom, who's so in love with Mr. Gutierrez. Or like Mrs. Bowman. Or like your Mom. I just… Sometimes I see the love and trust between couples I know and I want that. But… I… I'm scared of opening up. Scared of… sex, too. I'm scared of that aspect of romance. It… It's such a… a vulnerable position to be in… The level of trust I'd have to have to let someone do that to me… and to do it with them… I don't know if I'll ever have that level of trust."

Ben nodded, understanding and empathizing with her.

"A part of me wants it," she admitted. "A part of me sees that intimacy between couples and wishes that I could have that… Just like I wish I could have the close, trusting relationship I should with my Step-father. I wish I could trust enough to experience those feelings and intimacy… But I'm too scared of opening up and getting hurt… I wanna get over it. I want to get over that fear. I don't want to be held back by this! For so long, I've missed out on good friends and relationships because of fear! I've held myself back with my prosthetic. I've made myself lonely because I can't make friends. I've let anger towards my Mom stay between us. I've addressed all of those problems recently… I want to address this fear of romance, but…"

"It's okay," Ben assured her. "You have time. There's no need to be suddenly, bam! I'm dating someone and have kids. You're going to be sixteen, there's no need to rush this. I mean, it's good to address the fear and work on it now, but you don't have to feel the need to rush it."

Yasmina nodded.

"You have time," he said again. "I believe when you find the right guy and the time is right, you won't have fear. But you don't have to rush it. It's okay. Understand this stems from trauma. Don't be beating yourself up over this fear. Be understanding with yourself about this, okay?"

Yasmina stared at him, at war with herself mentally. "He's right, I don't need to rush this. I've dealt with a lot already these past few days. Healing takes time, not days."

"But I can be so cowardly about this… What if now is the right time? What if he's the right guy? He loves me… He's shown me a type of love I've never felt before…"

"We're too young for this…"

"Fear is always holding me back… What if now is the time to face it?"

"It's a bad idea…"

"But why? I'd be facing my fears! I'd feel love unlike anything I've ever felt before! And I trust him completely… I love him… I want to spend the rest of my life with him… But if I wait, I might not have the courage to do this…"

Giving into the impatient, rationally irrational side of her, Yasmina leaned forward and kissed him.

Brooklynn and Sammy stare in complete shock at her.

Yasmina embarrassedly taps on her amputated limb. "I kissed him… At first, he kissed back, but… He pulled back and said it wasn't right. We shouldn't do it. We were too young, yada yada yada… I… I was deadset on conquering that fear and becoming closer to him… I'm not sure what changed his mind, but… Later that night when we were in bed and should be sleeping… He gave in… I gave in… I…"

"Ugh, I slept in his bed last night!" Brooklynn gags, pinching the bridge of her nose.

This makes Yasmina burst into wheezes, holding her stomach as she laughs at her friends disgust. "Sorry," she apologizes through her tears.

"So, you foxtrotted with him and now you're too embarrassed to tell anyone?" Sammy quirks an eyebrow.

Yasmina hangs her head in shame. "I… In the moment, I didn't regret it. It… I do love him and that… that… I felt closer to him than I ever have before… Closer to anyone ever. But afterwards… I started to feel guilty. I didn't tell my parents when we got home… I didn't think too much of it while meeting up with my extended family… But the guilt started to eat away at me at Brandon's party… Ben had a panic or anxiety attack before the party… He… He read Scripture to calm himself… It reminded me of what we did… I couldn't look at him the same way again. All I could think about was what we did… How… How I defiled him… How dirty I felt… How much I regretted my decision…"

"What's taking you guys so long?" Jabari asks through the door.

Yasmina jumps, wrapping her arms around herself protectively.

"Girl time," Brooklynn says quickly.

"Well, hurry up," he groans.

Yasmina sighs shakily. "I… After that, sometimes when I looked at him, all I could see was what we did… When the guilt and shame came, all I could think about was what happened… Sometimes things were peaceful. Like when Kenji went to the hearing. I didn't have time to think about the shame… the trial was more important. In those moments, it felt like nothing happened between me and Ben… It… It was like if I had something else bad going on, I could forget about it. The trial, my prosthetic, chewing. Those things have been enough to change my attention and I could be fine… But then when I settle down and things are happy… The guilt settles in… Reminding me why I shouldn't be happy… Why I should hate myself… My stupid, impatient, reckless self!"

"Yasmina," Sammy says, setting her hand on her friends shoulder.

"Why did I do it?!" the athlete hisses, covering her face with her hands. "I… I ruined our friendship! How can we ever recover from this?! How-how can he recover from this?! What are his parents going to think?! What are my parents going to think?! Ben… Ben can't love me anymore. Not after this! How could he love a slut…"

"Yasmina, stop it," Sammy orders. "That's not what you are."

"I wish I had just listened to that voice in my head and suppressed my feelings…" Yasmina cries.

"I thought you just recently figured out you have a crush on him," Brooklynn crosses her arms.

Yasmina half snorts, half cries. "I tried to convince myself that I didn't… How… How could he love me after that… How could our friendship survive? I was sure that what I was feeling was pathetic and stupid and just the giddiness of getting over depression and other things… I couldn't actually have a crush on him… I was just desperate to get over my fear of romance and anxious for love of a deeper kind… But when I pictured having a family with him… I couldn't exactly deny it… It… It just makes everything so much more complicated!"

"So… you braved your fear only to make it worse, with added guilt and shame and the fear of losing his friendship?" Brooklynn asks.

Yasmina nods, then pales. "He's thirteen… I'm sixteen…"

The girls look at each other in horror. "You don't think…?" Sammy whispers.

Brooklynn doesn't say anything.

"Oh, God, I'm a criminal…" Yasmina whimpers, burying her face in her hands. "What am I going to do?! I-I don't have to tell anyone, right? We didn't know about the law, could I still get arrested?"

"I… I don't know…" Brooklynn murmurs, scared for her best friend.

"Oh… f***..." Yasmina sniffs. "... I… I still haven't gotten my period."

"No, there's no way," Brooklynn says quickly. "It's only one time, I doubt you could get pregnant that quickly."

The sickened, pained expression on the athlete's face says she didn't buy it.

Sammy sighs. "Do you think your Mother might have brought pregnancy tests with her?"

Yasmina wipes her eyes. "Maybe… Maybe they're still in her suitcase."

"I'll go see," Brooklynn says, standing up.

Yasmina grabs her arm. "Don't tell anyone what I said!" she hisses fearfully.

The pinkette sighs. "I'll tell her I'm looking for sunblock or something."

Yasmina reluctantly lets her go and allows Sammy to pull her into a hug. Brooklynn comes back with a box of pregnancy tests. "Lucky for you, it was hidden in a small compartment," she says. "Wanna wrap it in your swimsuit and take it to the bathroom?"

Yasmina nods and takes up her crutches. The pinkette walks with her and sets her swimsuit and the box in the bathroom before leaving to give her friend some privacy. Brooklynn argues a bit with Jabari about how long it was taking them before the athlete lets them into the bathroom. "I think we have to wait a few minutes…" she mumbles, sitting on the floor in her swimsuit.

While they anxiously wait, the girls help each other apply sunscreen. "Yo, can I show you guys something?" Kenji knocks on the door.

"Sure," Yasmina says hollowly.

He opens the door and pokes his ghoulish face in. "I've come to steal your souls!" he declares, his face white with sunscreen.

"Too much, boy, too much!" Darius says pulling Kenji back. The girls can hear the boys fighting him to fix his sunblock.

The girls look at each other. "Do you think it will be positive?" Yasmina asks fearfully from the floor.

Neither one of her friends answers as Brooklynn picks up the stick from the sink. Her lips set in a tight line as she checks the box for instructions. "What is it?" Sammy asks.

Brooklynn looks grim. "... Positive…" she murmurs, handing Yasmina the stick.

They weren't sure if it was the sunscreen or if Yasmina turned pale. She stares in hollow shock at the test, unable to believe it.

"C-come on, it can give you a false positive, right?" Sammy suggests, trembling.

Brooklynn silently shook her head. "I think that's rare…"

Yasmina's chest constricts. She starts to cry before shutting her eyes and gritting her teeth. "No! … No, no… no… No, it… no, no, no, no…"

She hyperventilates as she tries to compose herself. "No… No, this is not happening… This is not happening… This is a sick joke! This isn't real! This isn't real… This isn't you, Yaz…"

"Yaz," Sammy says.

"No," the athlete says forcefully, her eyes dark. "I'm not pregnant. None of this happened, I…"

"Yasmina, you're in shock," Brooklynn says.

"Nothing's wrong," she hisses through her teeth. "Let's-let's just go down to the beach and have fun! That's what we came here to do! None of this is real! Nothing's wrong! I'm fine. We're fine. Everything is fine."

"Yaz, it's okay," Sammy starts to say.

"Yeah, cause nothing's wrong!" Yasmina snaps angrily, standing up with her crutches. "Are we going to the beach or not?"

"Are you sure you don't need some time to—" Brooklynn starts to ask, before the athlete's growl stops her.

"There is no need, I'm fine," she insists with a growl, limping out of the bathroom.

Sammy and Brooklynn freeze in shock before looking at each other. Brushing her hair back stressfully, Sammy leans back against the wall. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know…" Brooklynn whispers. "She… She really did that?"

"I would've put it past her, but…" Sammy murmurs. "I just feel so bad for her… And now there's a baby and the possibility of arrest…"

"She's not accepting it," Brooklynn says.

"It's Yaz, she spent like two weeks denying she slept with him," Sammy reminds her. "Just… let her deny it for now… It's her birthday… It's honestly been spoiled enough… If she needs some time to work it through her own head, let her."

Brooklynn sighs. "God, I hope this turns out well…"

---

"Woo! Party, party, yeah!" Kenji says, rubbing Darius's head as he passes by him in the living room. He had changed into simple, black swimming trunks and his sunglasses.

"Ey!" Darius protests, fixing his hair. He had on yellow trunks and had a black and red, long-sleeve swim shirt his mother forced him to bring.

"It's finally beach time," Ghaleb says, stretching his legs. He wore tight, athletic swim shorts: black with a blue stripe on each side.

"I hope the water is warm," Ben says, tugging at the sleeves of his white swim shirt. His blue shorts were longer than the other boys'.

"If not, we'll shove you in," Jabari threatens with a grin. His swimwear was the wildest of all: gray shorts with a pizza print and a swim shirt with a Great White Shark… with pizza for teeth.

"I'm sensing a pattern in this family," Darius jokes to Ben, making him snort.

"Kenji, do you have any swim shirt or something to protect your chest and back?" Mrs. Fadoula asks. She had a long sleeve swim shirt with purple and white flowers, with a black swim skort. Her twenty week baby bump was showing.

"Nope, I'm good," the alpha male shrugs.

"Are you going to put on sunscreen?" she asks.

"NoPe," he says, popping his P.

"I don't want you getting burned," she says. "Can you at least put sunscreen on? Or borrow one of Ghaleb's shirts?"

"I think they'd be too big for him," Ghaleb smirks, flexing his muscles.

"I thInk thEy'd bE tOo bIg fOr hIm," Kenji mocks as his friends laugh. "I don't like sunscreen."

"Stop being a brat," Darius orders.

Kenji blows raspberries at him and sulkingly takes the sunscreen. He takes a large glop and slaps it down his forehead and nose, then shrugs at Mrs. Fadoula.

"You got bird poop on your nose," Habeeba laughs. She had a cute watermelon tankini top and a turquoise bottom.

"Well, maybe I should rub it in," Kenji says, aggressively rubbing the sunscreen around his face. It was too much and his visage was ghostly white. "Protected enough?" he asks.

Mrs. Fadoula merely gives him an expression of annoyance and mild amusement, not unlike what Yasmina would give him.

The alpha male is too busy laughing at his own antics. "Yo, can I show you guys something?" he says to the girls through the bathroom door.

"Sure," Yasmina says from inside.

Kenji sticks his head in. "I've come to steal your souls!"

"Too much, boy, too much!" Darius exclaims, pulling him back into the living room. "You need to rub it in," he says, aggressively rubbing Kenji's forehead.

"I did!" the alpha male protests, trying to escape.

Ghaleb, Jabari, and Ben try to force him to fix his sunscreen while holding him down. Habeeba laughs as she watches the chaos.

"What's going on?" Yasmina asks, limping out of the bathroom. She had a dark purple one piece with a pink stripe going up both sides.

"Kenji," Darius says.

Yasmina nods, getting the gist. Her face was set in an unreadable expression. "Are we going down?"

"Well, if you girls are ready, we can start heading down," Mr. Fadoula says. "Your Mom is going to stay behind for a bit and set things up, but we can head down and get all our gear out."

"Yeah… let's go down," Brooklynn says quietly, coming out in her blue and white striped bikini.

"Yer still really white," Sammy comments, struggling slightly to roll her wheelchair over the raised floorboard. She had a yellow tankini top and purple bottom.

"Put on sunscreen," Mrs. Fadoula instructs before whispering to Yasmina.

"I'm fine," the athlete shrugs her off, limping outside to be sprayed down.

Her mother sighs and shakes her head. "I'll make sandwiches and bring them down, since it's close to lunchtime. Do you guys want turkey or ham?"

The group gives their preferences as they pack up and prepare. "Alright, I have the umbrella and a couple chairs," Mr. Fadoula says. "We need three other chairs carried down… Also the beach towels, toys and bags."

"And me," Sammy pipes up. "I don't think the beach is wheelchair accessible."

"Yaz, you need a ride?" Kenji asks.

The athlete shakes her head, having been zoning out. "What? Oh, no, I think my crutches will be fine."

"Up you go," Ghaleb says, allowing Sammy to wrap her arms around his neck before hoisting her up on his back.

Kenji grabs two chairs while Darius grabs the other. Habeeba and Jabari grab the sand toys and boards while Brooklynn and Ben take the beach towels and bags Mrs. Fadoula sent down. Yasmina had enough on her hands with her crutches, which she seemed to be sulking about. Brooklynn comes up behind her and puts a comforting hand on her shoulder, but the Trackstar shrugs her off and limps faster.

The house was in the third row down from the beachfront, making it a lot more peaceful than the houses closer to the shore. After descending the stairs onto the beach and finding a good spot, the crew begins to set up camp. "Boys, let's set up the tent," Mr. Fadoula says. It was a blue tent umbrella that could fit a couple chairs underneath it. Ghaleb, Kenji, Darius, and Ben help him set things up. "Jabari! Come back here and help!" Mr. Fadoula calls, shaking his head as he watches his step-son start to dig a hole.

Brooklynn and Sammy set out beach towels and chairs while Habeeba and Jabari get out the toys. Yasmina stares out at the water, lost in thought.

"Are you ready to go in?" Darius asks, coming up behind her and touching her shoulder.

She jumps slightly. "W-why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know, you just seem a little distracted," he says, a bit worried. He is silent for a moment. "Do you think the water will make you… anxious?"

The athlete thinks for a moment. "No, I don't think it will trigger anything. I'm worried about Sammy, though… I know she's insisted that she's fine, but…"

"She might be faking it," Darius finishes. "Even if she is, there's no going back now…"

"I gave her many chances to say no…" Yasmina murmurs. "I wouldn't mind changing plans if she felt like she'd be triggered…"

"But she didn't want to force you to change plans," Darius says. "You'd feel the same way."
"I know…" Yasmina whispers. "I just wish she wouldn't act like me."

Darius chuckles. "Yeah, same. Acting like you isn't always a good thing."

"I know," Yasmina murmurs guiltily. "I'm a pain in the a**."

"That's not what I meant," he backpedals.

"No, I get it," she sighs. "I'm a reckless, stubborn a**hole… With no patience or brains."

"That's a depressing outlook on yourself," he says.

"Well, it's true…" she shrugs.

"C'mon! Let's go in the water!" Kenji exclaims, tossing his sunglasses into a bag. "You want to, right, Yaz?"

"Yeah," she says a little impatiently. "Let's go…"

"Go on, go have fun!" Sammy urges them before anyone could ask her if she would feel left out.

Darius and Ghaleb help Yasmina down to the water without her crutches. "Cold, cold, cold," she exclaims, shivering as the waves wash over her foot.

Kenji yelps as the cold water touches him—or perhaps he yelped because he purposefully fell back in the water. "BRRR!" he announces.

"You're the one who decided to immerse yourself," Ben reminds him.

"But now that I'm soaked, I can get used to the temp faster," Kenji says, teeth chattering.

"Weeee!" Jabari grins, using the boogie board to surf on the small waves coming in.

Habeeba jumps over the crests of the waves as they come in. "Yazzy! You can't let the waves touch you!"

Ghaleb and Darius help Yasmina jump over the waves, following suit in Habeeba's game. Kenji body surfs along with Jabari. After a few minutes, the waves send Jabari and his board straight in Darius's legs, knocking him over. He just about pulls Yasmina down with him. It gave the group a good laugh.

"Dad! Can we go deeper into the waves?" Jabari asks.

"Not yet," Mr. Fadoula says, already relaxing in a chair in the shade. "Wait for your Mom to come down and then I'll go out with whoever wants to."

With that, the group moves up onto the sand to play. "Who wants to help me dig a hole?" Jabari asks, returning back to his original task.

"I will!" Habeeba offers.

"Sure," Ghaleb shrugs, deciding to use his hands.

"These two have been conversing in Spanish," Mr. Fadoula chuckles, gesturing to Sammy and Brooklynn. "I didn't know you spoke Spanish, B."

"I don't get much practice," Brooklynn mumbles.

"I wanna bury someone in the sand," Jabari declares.

"Bury away," Kenji says, helping him dig a shallow area for the alpha male.

"Me, too!" Sammy exclaims. Her and Brooklynn help Habeeba do the same.

Darius helps the others dig in the sand, but he's watching Yasmina. The athlete had sat down and was staring out at the ocean. "Are you okay?" he asks, startling her again.

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry about me," she says quickly. "There's nothing wrong."

"You just seem very distracted," Darius comments. "You, Sammy, and Brooklynn…"

"Need help burying him?" Yasmina asks her brother, completely ignoring what Darius said and moving past him. Darius reluctantly follows her.

The group covers Kenji and Sammy in the sand up to their necks. "Give me boobies," Kenji requests with a mischievous grin.

"Kenji, no!" Sammy protests while the others laugh.

"I'll give you Sammy's," Habeeba says, brutally honest as she gathers up large piles of sand.

The others gape and try not to laugh. Kenji purses his lips as he tries not to chuckle. "I regret saying that now," he wheezes.

"Children, they're too honest," Sammy rolls her eyes.

"What should we make Sammy?" Jabari asks.

"Make her sunbathe with a thong," Habeeba says, making the others laugh again.

"Why do you have such a dirty mind already?" Yasmina snorts.

"This is soooo bad," Sammy sighs, laughing herself as Jabari begins to try to form a body behind her head.

Habeeba finishes giving Kenji boobs and pats the sand. "And here's two little holes for your nipples," Habeeba grins, making Kenji wheeze. As he laughs, the sand around his chest begins to crack. "No, no! You're breaking your boobies!"

"I should've saved this joke for the older kids," Kenji shakes his head, disappointed and amused at the same time.

"Ghaleb, can I bury you and make you a giant squid?" Jabari asks.

"Sure," the older boy shrugs. Jabari, Ghaleb, and Habeeba move farther away from the group to have a lot of room for their sand art.

Darius looks at Mr. Fadoula, who was just within hearing distance of the buried campers. The adult was already snoring, his hat pulled down over his eyes and burly arms crossed over his chest.

"Okay, I think we're safe to talk," Darius says low enough only the others could hear.

Yasmina straightens. "Huh? Safe to talk about what? There's nothing to talk about."

Brooklynn and Sammy look at each other and wince.

"What's going on? You three have been acting strange since we got here," Kenji comments. "And you guys took a while to get ready."

"Nothing! Everything is fine!" Yasmina insists, pulling her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

Ben looks at her, then at Sammy and Brooklynn, then back again to the athlete. "You told them, didn't you?"

"Told them what?!" she snaps, acting like a caged animal. "There's nothing to tell them about!"

"She did," Sammy murmurs, squinting in the sun.

"There's… nothing… to talk about…" Yasmina hisses, hiding her face from the others.

"Yaz is pregnant," Brooklynn drops the news.

The athlete pulls into herself even more, flinching at the words.

The boys freeze before Kenji and Darius start laughing. "Nice try," Darius snorts.

"Yeah, you'd have to have more of a build up than that to make us believe she's pregnant," Kenji grins. "Not even a convincing April fools. Nice try, though."

"I'm not pregnant, it's just a stupid joke," Yasmina says. "I can't be… I'm just late. The test is wrong… It's just an April fools gag the universe is playing on me…"

"You took a test?" Ben asks quietly.

"I…" Yasmina stutters. "No, I didn't. There's no reason to take a test. I'm not pregnant. I can't be pregnant… That wouldn't be me. No…"

"Hold on," Kenji says, spitting out sand that had gotten in his mouth. "... You're being serious?"

"No, I'm not!" Yasmina snaps. "I mean, yes! Wait… serious about what?"

"Did you take a pregnancy test?" Darius asks. "For real? You're not pulling our leg?"

"No, I… I didn't take one," Yasmina insists through her teeth. "They're lying… They're wrong… They're wrong."

Darius and Kenji look at each other with worry, before glancing at Ben. The blonde kid was looking down at his hands, his lips tightly pursed. "Okay… tell me the truth," Darius says solemnly. "Did Yaz take a pregnancy test?"

Sammy and Brooklynn nod, while Yasmina refuses to look at him.

"But why? There's no way Yaz could be pregnant," Kenji says.

"Exactly! See, there's no way! We can move on," Yasmina exclaims quickly.

"They don't have the full story," Brooklynn reminds her.

"They don't need it, it's fine!" Yasmina insists.

"Yaz, is there something you need to talk about?" Darius asks, moving closer to her.

Yasmina jumps and moves away from him. "I…" she stutters, nervously chuckling. "T-this is all a dream. This isn't actually happening…" More nervous chuckling. "I can't… Sooner or later I'll wake up and this won't be happening…"

"Yaz," Ben starts, letting out a soft chuckle. "We… We can't run from this forever."

"Shut up," she hisses, trying to quell her nervous laughter. "Just… No…"

"Yasmina," Ben says softly, moving forward. "Did you take a test?"

She refuses to meet his eyes. "Yes…"

"What was it?" Ben asks, his chest constricting.

The athlete sniffs. "Positive…" she hiccups.

Ben looks down at the sand before tentatively moving forward. He gently pulls her into a hug, giving her time to pull away if she wanted to. Yasmina didn't resist. After a moment, she wraps her arms around his shoulders and buries her face in his neck, sobbing softly. Ben's hands shake like he was crying as he holds her.

"I'm sorry," she says, barely comprehensible. "I… I ruined your life… I ruined mine… I messed everything up…"

"Yaz, it takes two to make that mistake," Ben mumbles. "You don't have to take the blame… If anything, I should take it."

"No, why would you—" Yasmina protests, pulling back before wheezing. She points at Darius through her hysterics.

"Uhhhhh… What mistake?" Darius says, leaning back and giving them a look of disgust and horror.

Ben sighs, trying not to laugh at his friend's feelings. He fails miserably. "We… A couple weeks ago, we… We slept together."

"Nah uh," Kenji shakes his head. "You're kidding."

"You can't be serious," Darius stares at Ben.

"I think they're serious," Brooklynn says solemnly.

"But Miss Giggles over here is afraid of it!" Kenji protests, pointing to a still wheezing Yasmina.

"Well, uhh…" Ben starts to say, but catches another round of giggles. Darius's look of horror wasn't helping. "That's why… That's why we did it…"

"I… I wanted to overcome my fears… This was back when I overcame depression," Yasmina sighs, trying to breathe. The seriousness of the situation begins to return. "And… I didn't want to be held back by my fear of romance… and I trust Ben… I trust him the most… I… I was too impatient to wait… I wanted to overcome that fear then… But it was a mistake… All of it was a mistake… A stupid, stupid, reckless mistake!"

"I can't…" Ben murmurs, taking a deep breath. "I can't say it wasn't a mistake… If I could go back and redo it, I would… We should've waited… At the very least, waited until we were in an actual relationship… But do you regret all of it?"

Yasmina looks up at him with shiny, teary eyes.

"I regret giving into temptation…" Ben murmurs. "I regret not waiting… But I don't regret it being you."

A pink tint creeps onto Yasmina's face, which she promptly hides in her arms.

"I know we were just friends," he continues. "And I know… I know one of the main motives behind what we did for you was to overcome your fear… And you trusted me the most… But… Was there any part of you that… that did it for love? Ever since we did it, you've… you've avoided me for the most part… Why?"

The athlete is silent for a moment. "Because I run from things I'm scared of…" she mumbles.

"You're scared of me?" Ben asks.

"Not you…" she grumbles. "... Feelings… Emotions… guilt and shame… I… I felt ashamed of what we did. Guilt from taking your innocence… Fear that… that… Fear that my parents would kick me out… Fear that I'd be in trouble… Fear that I would lose our friendship…"

The other campers look at each other, wondering if they should leave the two alone.

"I regret being so… impatient and… impulsive that I… I possibly lost our friendship…" she admits.

"You wouldn't lose it," Ben assures her.

"But how can it ever be the same after that?" she sobs.

"I'm not going to leave you because of a mistake we made," he promises. "It's going to take more than that to shake me. Have more faith in our friendship."

"Last time I did that, I ended up broken and hurt…" she mumbles. "And now… now we've gone too far… We can't just forget about it! It's always going to be there… and now… the test… How can our friendship survive this, Ben?"

"We'll repair it," he insists. "We'll mend it so that it's stronger than ever. This may be a bump in the road, but our friendship doesn't fall apart that easily. If we broke apart after a tiny hiccup, we wouldn't have survived the island, probably. Our friendship has survived near death, why can't it survive sex?"

"Can it survive prison?" she asks, lifting her head. "Ben… I could be arrested for this… I… I didn't know that was the law, but it doesn't matter. You're too young for me… I'm a criminal… And the… the baby only proves it…"

"We'll get through it," he says.

"How?!" she cries.

"Somehow," he shrugs. "I don't know. But I'm not bailing out on you or our child. You think I'm just going to leave you? Not a chance, Yaz. You're stuck with me for life. You can run as far away as you want, but I'll still be there. No matter how many times you pull away, I'll still be standing there, waiting for you to come back. When you cry out for me, I'll be there, no matter how far away you are. I'm not perfect, but I swear I'll be there for you, Yaz. I don't care who stumbles over what or what tries to tear us apart, I'm there with reached out hands. I'm standing with you through the thick and the thin and I'm going to be there, come what may!"

Yasmina gazes at him with glossy eyes, too stunned to speak. As tears slip out, she moves forward and hugs him tightly, letting out a relieved sob. The two embrace, thankful to finally bridge the issue that had divided them for a moment.

Pulling back, she sighs shakily, emotionally weary. "I… thank you… thank you…"

Ben gives her his dorky, yet endearing smile, and the athlete looks like she's about to kiss him. "Hate to break up the tenderhearted moment, but I don't think y'all should kiss," Sammy pipes up.

"Yeah, yeah," Yasmina blinks quickly, brushing away her tears and pulling back. Her cheeks heat up. "That… that wouldn't be a good idea."

"Also, your knee is digging into my chest and it's kinda suffocating," Kenji grimaces to Ben. "Off, off, off, off."

"Sorry," Ben apologizes, moving off of the buried wild Kenji.

"Well, I'm with Ben, we're not leaving you guys," Darius says, grinning.

"We've stuck through dinos, we'll stick through babies," Brooklynn smiles.

"Just another adventure life has thrown at us," Kenji winks.

"It's a good thing yer Mom is pregnant, too," Sammy says. "She can help you through it side by side."

The mention of her pregnancy gives Yasmina an anxious look.

"Let's forget about it for right now," Ben suggests. "It's your birthday, let's enjoy it. This situation won't go anywhere. And… I'd rather not immediately face your Dad… or Ghaleb… Both of them will probably kill me…"

"Yeahhhhh, I don't think Yaz will be in trouble, it will be Ben," Kenji shrugs, cracking the packed sand.

"Right, right…" Yasmina breathes, panicking.

"Uhhh, we don't have to tell them about it right away, right?" Ben asks, wide eyed. "I can always blame it on Kenji, can't I?"

"The f*** you will!" Kenji exclaims, making his friends laugh. "Sorry, bruh, I ain't taking this fall for you. I couldn't even get through that lie with a straight face! Me getting Yaz pregnant? Nope, can't do it."

"Come on, let's fix this risque artwork your siblings have made," Sammy suggests, nodding to the bikini backside Jabari had created for her.

"Ben squashed my titty," Kenji snickers.

The group laughs and turns their attention to enjoying the beach.

---

"Are you done?" Kenji asks, still buried up to his neck in sand. The others had been making different designs in the sand around him for about fifteen minutes. "I'm done. I wanna MOVE!"

"Okay, okay, you can get up," Jabari grins.

Kenji goes to move but struggles. "Hey, my arms are stuck!"

Yasmina's younger brother cackles. "Haha! I poured water down on you."

"I know, it was cold!" Kenji exclaims.

"But then it packs the sand in and makes it harder for you to move," Brooklynn explains.

"Plus, my arms and legs are stuck!" the alpha male exclaims. "Help! I can't get out!"

"Get him out before the tide comes in!" Habeeba declares, digging near his head. "He'll drown!"

"The tide isn't anywhere near him yet," Yasmina says dryly. "It'll take a while before he drowns."

Sammy shivers. "Git me out."

"Save Sammy and Kenji!" Jabari says dramatically as the group begins to dig them out.

Brooklynn and Ben help pull Sammy out while Kenji dramatically crawls out like a zombie. "I'm looking for brains!"

"You won't find any here," Ghaleb says, aggressively rubbing Jabari's head.

"Hey!" the boy protests, initiating a fight with his brother.

"You okay?" Yasmina asks concernedly, gently grabbing Sammy's arm.

Sammy nods bleakly; the idea of the tide coming in while she was stuck in the sand had scared her. "Yeah, just… give me a minute."

Yasmina nods, before protesting as Kenji carries her away. "Hey! I can walk myself, you know!"

"Doggy!" Habeeba exclaims, spotting a young, golden retriever with a red coat walking with her owners.

Interested, most of the group approaches the excited puppy, asking if they could pet her. Brooklynn sits with Sammy in the sand, watching the others. "D'aww, she's cute," Brooklynn chuckles, watching the puppy aggressively lick Habeeba in the face. The older teen holding her leash struggles to keep the puppy under control.

"Yeah…" Sammy nods. She was a bit on edge and paranoid after the idea of being buried and drowning. Now she notices the swimsuits of the owners… Three teen girls about Kenji and Ghaleb's age in bikinis and short shorts. Suddenly, she became very self conscious about herself. "Is Kenji looking?" she wonders, then feels guilty about being so jealous.

Watching Kenji talk to the girls—even though it looked completely casual, platonic, and focused solely on their dog—she was still jealous. The need to show off and catch his attention rises. Thinking quickly, she sighs. "I really need to get a tan," she tells Brooklynn, looking over her stomach and legs. "I'm pale."

"Same," Brooklynn chuckles. "I brought a couple mats if you want to sunbathe with me for a bit."

Sammy smirks; exactly what she wanted to do.

The two lay out their mats and lay down on their stomachs. Sammy feels a bit vulnerable, and turns around to see if anyone was looking at her. To her amusement, Kenji quickly looks away. "Who you staring at now?" she thinks triumphantly, then immediately feels guilty. Kenji wouldn't do that to her. Kenji wouldn't be going after other girls, not him. He was too committed to her… right? She was enough, right? She didn't have to impress him and act this way… right?

"Don't look at her, don't think about her that way," Kenji tells himself, staring at the dog as the teens continue their walk. "She deserves better than to be stared at like that… Save it, Kenji. Don't do anything stupid like hit on her. You don't want to end up in Ben and Yaz's situation… H***, what am I thinking?! Stop thinking about Sammy like that! She's a pure innocent puppy, not your toy! Treat her like the queen she is… Not a whore… Stop it. They'll stop sunbathing eventually, just focusing on something else in the meantime."

Darius turns around to look up at the campsite. "Okay, ever notice that when girls lay in the sun, they stick their butts up in the air?" Jabari comments, laying down and exaggeratedly sticking his butt out. He and Habeeba laugh, still pretty immature.

Darius shakes his head. Now thanks to Jabari, his attention was on the girls sunbathing… "Are their butts drawing that much attention?" he asks himself, a bit embarrassed by the internal conversation. "Or is Jabari just immature?"

Blinking, he realizes he was staring at Brooklynn… The angle wasn't exactly… the most appropriate. Despite the blush creeping up on his face, he refuses to admit that he likes her or sees her as attractive in any way other than a friend. "No, I… She's a friend… It's just… She's not wearing enough… I'm fine, but she could be putting herself in danger attracting unwanted and evil attention."

Approaching the girls, he makes his presence known. "What are you guys doing?" Darius asks, standing next to Brooklynn.

The pinkette turns over to look at him. "Sunbathing."

Darius looks around the beach, his protectiveness activated. "You're pretty exposed."

"Well, it's not like we have dinosaurs around," she shrugs.

"I meant human threats," he says darkly.

"Pfft, am I showing too much skin?" Brooklynn taunts. "It's fine."

Before he could protest her violation of his authority, Mrs. Fadoula comes down to the beach. "Sandwiches!" Jabari exclaims.

"Why don't we wait to eat lunch? It's still early in the morning," she says, setting her stuff down on a beach towel.

"Dad! Let's go out in the water!" Habeeba calls.

"Alright," he grunts, getting up from his chair.

Mrs. Fadoula stops him, and begins to whisper to him. The two look confused and a bit worried.

"What are they talking about?" Brooklynn asks.

"Not sure," Yasmina shrugs, not caring.

After some hushed whispers, Mrs. Fadoula beckons to the group. "Girls, could we talk to you for a moment?"

Sammy sighs. "Give me a few minutes," she says, trying to crawl over.

The group chuckles as Ghaleb scoops her up and sets her down underneath the umbrella. Yasmina and Brooklynn follow. "What's up?" Brooklynn asks.

Yasmina's mother sighs. "Well, while setting things up around the house, I found… something interesting in… in the trash in the bathroom."

The girls blink. Brooklynn is the quickest to catch on. "Oh…"

Yasmina and Sammy aren't there yet. "You gotta be more specific than that," the athlete quips.

"Um, Brooklynn," Mrs. Fadoula says, noticing the worried look on the pinkette's face. "Is it… yours?"

Brooklynn is shocked for a second before she starts laughing. "Oh, no, that wasn't mine, um…"

"So, who's pregnancy test was it?" she asks, crossing her arms. She was more worried than mad, though.

Yasmina's eyes widen; she had forgotten that her mother could find it in the trash. The three girls exchange a look.

"Whose is it?" Mrs. Fadoula asks again, gently but sternly.

Yasmina gulps. "... Mine…"

Her parents stare at her in confusion. "You're kidding, right?" Mr. Fadoula says. "Is this a prank?" Despite his question, he still stayed very quiet and serious.

The athlete sighs and shakes her head, knowing she couldn't escape this conversation. "I… Um…"

"Do… do you want us to give you guys privacy?" Brooklynn asks.

"Y-yeah…" Yasmina nods.

Brooklynn and Sammy give her a sympathetic smile before Brooklynn drags Sammy away by her arms. The two girls laugh a bit.

Turning back to her parents, Yasmina swallows hard. Numbly, she gives them the explanation she gave Sammy and Brooklynn. By the end of the explanation, her parents are baffled. "Yasmina, I…" her mother sighs, rubbing her forehead. "I can't believe it…"

"I know it's hard to believe," Yasmina snaps, becoming a bit defensive. "I would've pretended like it didn't happen if… if I… I hadn't… if the test…"

"Why… Why would you…?" her step-father mumbles, trying to process everything. "You've… You've always been the kid who refused to fall in love. Now all of the sudden you're pregnant?"

"I was vulnerable," she sharply says. "I was hurting… I wanted… I wanted to feel loved… I… I wanted to be loved. I wanted to be close to someone. I wanted to know what it was like to be able to trust someone like that. I…"

"Yasmina, I—" her mother starts.

"I wish I could know that type of love!" the athlete snaps. "I wish I had grown up seeing a good example of that! All I knew was pain and fear from him! You guys weren't happy! You guys didn't love each other! He was abusive and you were cowardly! And how can I trust you!" She gestures to her step-father. "My own father didn't even love me! How could you?! How-how…"

She stops talking and stares at her hands, tears slipping out as she processes her words. "I…" she murmurs, shocked by her own outburst. "How… How can I trust someone… How can I trust anyone? … How can anyone love me?"

"Yasmina, sweety," Mrs. Fadoula says softly.

"Are you guys going to kick me out?" Yasmina asks, almost sobbing at that point. "Are you guys mad at me for this?"

"No, we're not going to kick you out," Mr. Fadoula says sincerely.

She wipes away her tears. "You're… you're not going to kick me out?"

"No, of course not," her mother insists. "And we're not mad at you."

This takes her by surprise. "You're… you're not mad at me? Why? Why wouldn't you be?"

"We're disappointed, but we're not mad," her step-father says. "It… It sounds like there's a deeper reason for this."

Yasmina is completely shocked. He… He was understanding? He saw that there was an underlying reason for what she did? And that it was a problem? And he wasn't getting mad at her?

"You… w-what?" she stutters. "I…"

"You said you wanted to sleep with him because you didn't know what intimate love was like," he says. "When you said intimate love, did you mean sex or a close, loving relationship with anyone?"

Yasmina accepts the napkin from her mother to blow her nose. "I… I… A part of me does want to experience romantic love… See what all the fuss about it is… Have that kind of close bond with someone… But love in general, I don't understand… I… I guess sometimes I… I don't feel like I deserve to have it… Or that I'll ever get it…"

She takes in a heavy breath before continuing. "I want to feel loved but I don't… I'm not sure if it's that I don't think I ever will be or if I don't think I can be… What have I done to deserve it, you know?"

"You don't have to earn our love, Yazzy," Mr. Fadoula states softly. "We'll be mad at you sometimes and we won't always like you, but we'll always love you."

"You're not going to be able to change that," her mother says. "I'm sorry if you… haven't always felt like I love you. I know your childhood was a rough time but…"

"I don't know how to mend relationships…" Yasmina admits. "I don't know how to start relationships… I want to be loved and I want relationships, but I'm scared to be vulnerable… I'm scared to get hurt again… How… How do I fix this? I'm scared of emotions, I'm scared of sex, I'm scared of relationships! I just want to be loved but I push people away so much out of fear…"

Her parents pull her into a hug. "I'm sorry," she blurts out, crying. "I'm sorry…"

"It's okay, Yasmina," her mother assures her. "We'll get through this… We'll have two babies in the house, unless you… unless you don't feel ready to be a mother and decide to choose adoption… We'll work through these internal problems with you together. We're going to get through this, okay?"

Yasmina pulls back, her nose running again. "... I… I didn't think… I thought you guys would be so mad… I feel so horrible…"

"It's okay," her step-father says. "We're not mad. We'll get through this."

---

"What's going on?" Kenji asks as Brooklynn drags Sammy down the beach.

"And I lost my bottom," Sammy laughs, pulling up her tankini bottom. "And got sand down my butt, but being buried didn't help there."

"Miss Ayishah found the test in the bathroom," Brooklynn says solemnly. "Yaz wanted to talk to them alone."

"Brooklynn! What are these thingies!" Habeeba calls out, crouching down in the sand near the tide.

Brooklynn rolls her eyes as she heads over. "Ah, the perks of being the 'all-knowing Youtuber'."

"Tell me what it is," Sammy says. "I ain't getting near the tide."

"Can I bury you again?" Jabari asks.

"Eh, sure, why not?" the cowgirl rolls her eyes.

"Let's take a short walk around in the tide," Darius suggests, gesturing to Kenji and Ben.

The boys begin to walk away from the group. Not too far, but far enough to talk privately. "So…" Darius starts. "You… Yaz… for real?"

Ben's mouth curls into an uncomfortable smile but he tries to stop it. "Uhhhhh… yeah…"

"Give us deets," Kenji says. The other two boys stare at him in horror. "Not about the… act, you know," the alpha male groans. "But you gotta explain what happened."

"Like she said… she wanted to overcome her fears…" Ben mumbles.

"That's her side of the story," Kenji says. "What about yours?"

Ben sighs.

Yasmina leaned in for a kiss. The act completely shocked Ben. For a split second, he kissed back, unsure what to do and completely taken by surprise. Then he pulled back. "Woah, woah…" he stuttered, staring at her with wide eyes. "Yaz, what are?"

"You said when the time was right, I wouldn't have any fear," she said, blinking innocently at him, even though her intentions couldn't be any further from that. "I don't have fear… I trust you… I love you, Ben."

Something inside him stirred at her words, as well as the kiss. But he squashed it. "No," he squeaks. "We… we can't. Yaz, we're too young for this. We-we-we… We shouldn't do something that we would regret."

Yasmina's face scrunched up in hurt. "But I won't regret it… I love you… I want you. I think I always have. You've always been different. You're special to me."

"Yaz, I…" he murmured. She was making it difficult to say no to his growing feelings.

"Everyone can see it," she said. "Why do you think the others ship us together… You love me… right?"

"Yaz… Yes, I do love you and I do want this, but… no, not right now," he stuttered.

"Why not?" she asked quietly. "Why not right now… If I had to lose my first time, it'd be to you… I want to lose my first time to you… I want every time to be with you. I'm… I'm afraid I won't have the courage if we wait."

Ben's heart leapt, but he shook his head. "No… No, Yaz, we can't do this just yet… We have to wait."

Yasmina sighed, but she understood. The two awkwardly got ready for bed. Their recent conversation was still fresh in their minds, and the two laid next to each other uncomfortably. Ben's mind was spinning. Yasmina? Wanting to sleep with him? Now? She had just done a complete 180 on him! What changed?

"She's trying to overcome all her fears at once…" Ben thought.. "She's tired of being afraid and wants to overcome it… wants to take back her life from this fear… But I can't… WE can't… We shouldn't…"

"But what if she's right?" doubt asked. "What if she never has the courage to do this again? She really stepped out there. That took courage to ask me point blank… And what if she really does want this?"

"Nope, we can't do it," Ben tried to shut down rationalizing.

"But what if this would be good for her?" desire asked. "What if all she needs is a positive experience? What if this is the chance to help her? Right now while she's open? What if once she has a positive experience with me, she'll be able to finally heal?"

"No, Ben, stop it…" he grumbled to himself internally.

"It would only be one time," the voice in his head reasoned.

"It's never just one time…" Ben argued.

"It could help her heal the wounds and betrayal she felt from her father. She's open and willing and wanting. All it could take is a positive experience for her to realize she doesn't have to be afraid."

"Stop it…"

"Am I afraid? Am I the one holding back?"

"Stop…"

"It's not like I'm taking advantage of her, right? She's the one coming onto me. And I do love her. It's not like I'm doing this for my own pleasure… I want to see her heal and find love… She loves me… She wants me… I want her… Maybe this is God's plan…"

"No, stay pure until marriage," Ben reminded himself.

"But would I lose Yasmina?" the voice asked.

"She'll regret doing this with me…" he told himself.

"But would she regret me being too cowardly and then regret never being able to face her fear again? She trusts me… She loves me… This is for her. Not for my own pleasure. This is to help her overcome her fear and gain a positive experience. We don't have to transition into a couple after this. This isn't for pleasure… it's for healing. It's to show her that this can be beautiful."

After an hour of arguing with himself and as the voices in his head continually blend, as his moral lines began to blur and he questioned his motives and own feelings, Ben started to wear down. His steadfast, uncompromising position on the topic wavered and he slowly convinced himself that it would be okay. Yasmina would be okay afterwards. It would all be okay.

"Except it's not okay," Ben sighs. "We created an even bigger mess than if I had just stayed unmoving and left it alone… Sure, she faced her fear, but at what cost? She talked to me after Brandon's party… She apologized for ruining our friendship… What have I done? Did I just force her deeper into her shell?"

"That is… surprisingly relatable…" Kenji mumbles.

"I should've talked to my parents…" Ben murmurs. "Should've talked to someone. Should've taken a step back instead of letting my desires break down my will. Now… Now she's hurt. She's feeling guilty and ashamed and afraid of me… I should've left well enough alone…"

"I just…" Darius shakes his head. "I can't see you doing anything like this… You never let your feelings guide you. You never—"

"Make mistakes?" Ben guesses. "Is that what you think about me? Do you think I'm perfect?"

"Well… you're pretty close," Darius mumbles. "Your patience is off the charts, you always know what to say, you're the reason so many internal problems have been solved."

"What?!" Ben says, taken aback. "I'm not perfect, Darius! I'm human! I make mistakes! I have my flaws! Why-Why do you see me as perfect?"

"You just… you're… you're the good child," Kenji murmurs. "You always seem to know what to do at the right time."

"You both think I'm perfect?" Ben backs away in shock.

"Not perfect, just… really, really good," Kenji says.

"No, don't treat me like an idol," Ben says quickly. "I'm not perfect. I have problems. I make mistakes. I give into selfishness and my feelings. I'm not always going to do good. Don't… don't expect me to. Don't give me that standard. I'll fall short."

His friends are a bit shocked by his outburst, but they nod. "Okay…" Darius nods. "We won't… We'll try not to treat you like that…"

"I… I know it's pretty out of character for me," Ben stutters. "But I do love her… And she was so desperate to feel loved and overcome her fear… I justified my selfishness with the idea that I was helping her."

"That's understandable…" Kenji nods.

Ben groans. "You heard my story… it's over and done with. Can we move on? This can be dealt with another day. It's her birthday. Let's try to be happy."

The other two boys agree and rejoin the group.

---

"Geez, these waves are rough!" Habeeba exclaims, riding on her step-father's back as part of the group moves further into the sea.

Darius sputters as the waves slaps him in the face.

"You gotta jump over it, bruh!" Kenji tells him.

"Or duck dive," Jabari suggests, ducking under the water and popping out on the other side of the next wave. His boogie board pops up as he abandons it, forcing him to swim after it.

"The water's so cold!" Brooklynn shivers with a laugh, paddling next to Darius and Kenji.

"Let's go out farther!" Jabari asks, paddling back to the group.

"No, some of us can barely reach the bottom!" Brooklynn says, sputtering as the water goes over her head.

"This is far enough," Mr. Fadoula declares, stopping.

"Need a lift?" Kenji offers, allowing Brooklynn to cling to his back. Darius and Jabari paddle around like dogs, and Habeeba piggybacks on her step-father.

"I love it when it's calmer," Yasmina states, riding the second boogie board. The waves were rough enough to slap the others in the face, but the board the athlete was riding on helped smooth things out.

"You sure you're good out here?" Mr. Fadoula asks.

"As long as there's no sharks, yeah," she nods, laying her torso down on the board.

"AH!" Darius yelps, flailing around.

"What, what?!" Kenji exclaims, concerned.

Jabari surfaces, and Darius splashes him. "Bro, don't try to be a shark!" he protests.

"Let's not do that," Mr. Fadoula says, looking at his oldest daughter.

Yasmina shrugs. "I don't see the problem. I don't want him doing it to me, but if y'all want to play sharks, it won't bother me."

"She just said y'all," Brooklynn whispers to Kenji. The two snicker.

Given permission, Jabari starts swimming underneath the water and scaring people. It became a fun game. Ghaleb and Mr. Fadoula join in, with Habeeba taking the first boogie board.

"Toe fish!" Brooklynn exclaims after Darius poked her behind with his foot.

"What's a toe fish?" Yasmina laughs.

"This!" Darius grins, sticking his foot out of the water and wiggling his toes before getting rolled by the wave.

"Remember the last time we went to the beach?" Habeeba asks. "And we would pretend to be The 'Others'?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that!" Yasmina laughs.

"What's The 'Others'?" Darius asks.

"It was a comic that got turned into an animated show," Brooklynn explains. "There's humans, and then there's 'Others.' 'Others' are like humans, except with some animal features like tails and horns or something. It's chaotic."

"I swear the creators were on drugs," Ghaleb says.

"Or sleep deprived, it gives off Kenji and Sammy energy," Yasmina smirks.

"I'm Mink!" Habeeba declares.

"I'm Ermine!" Jabari picks.

"I'll be Sashi," Ghaleb says, picking up Habeeba and throwing her into the water. "YEET!"

The younger two laugh as they try to swim away from their older brother. He easily catches up and throws them. Not too far because it was difficult in the water, but the two got air.

"I'm Oliver," Kenji grins.

"Uhhhhh, Vixen?" Brooklynn shrugs.

"My siblings always make me be Namir," Yasmina rolls her eyes.

Darius jumps over a wave and looks at his friends. "Am I the only one who hasn't seen this show?"

"You'll be Caspian," Kenji decides. "The snake guy."

"Ooh, okay, cool," Darius grins.

"He's a troublemaker," Kenji continues. "He has a lisp sometimes."

"Makes sense if he's a snake," Darius nods.

"Oh, wait, no, you're Kayla," Kenji tells Brooklynn. "Cause she's Oliver's step sister and she doesn't always like him."

Brooklynn laughs.

"And Kayla and Caspian have an awkward crush on each other," Kenji snickers.

"Hey!" Brooklynn protests, slapping his head.

"Okay, no, I'm not Caspian," Darius blushes.

"He's also really short," Kenji adds.

"Yo, what are you implying?" Darius asks, offended.

"What do you think, Shorty?" Kenji grins mischievously.

"Listen here, Tallman," Darius quips, tackling Kenji and knocking Brooklynn off in the process.

The group laughs as the two bicker. After a few more minutes, the group heads back to their setup. Ben, Sammy, and Mrs. Fadoula were chilling under the umbrella. The others flop down in the chairs, towels or boogie boards. Minus Kenji; he flopped down on the sand despite being soaked.

"It's about eleven thirty," Mrs. Fadoula says, putting down her book. "Does everyone want to have sandwiches?"

The group agrees, dries their hands and passes around the sandwiches.

Sammy snorts and shakes her head. "Did I fall asleep?"

"Yeah, you were snoring," Ben chuckles.

The party group eat their sandwiches with potato chips while the sky gets cloudy. "Think we should head back?" Mrs. Fadoula asks.

"Well, it's not raining and it feels much nicer in the shade," Yasmina comments.

"I don't see the problem with staying here, as long as it's not thundering and lightning," Mr. Fadoula shrugs.

The party finishes their sandwiches and chips, throwing the sandy, dirty chips to the seagulls. It was a little past twelve and they were enjoying the cooler weather that came with the stormy clouds. Kenji, Brooklynn, Darius and Ben were standing at the water's edge, looking out over the ocean. "If you could be any animal, what would you be?" Darius asks as Brooklynn films the tide coming in.

Kenji thinks for a moment before aggressively squatting down, throwing his arms out at the ocean and shouting: "A LIZARD!"

"Here?" Habeeba asks in confusion, making the others laugh. "All I see is fish."

"Let's try to catch the fish with our hands," Kenji suggests, lunging at the water and coming up with nothing.

Kenji, Habeeba, and Jabari try in vain to catch fish before the alpha male gets bored. Darius starts a congo line in the sand, getting most of the group to join in. Sammy and Yasmina watch from their spot on the sand while Jabari continues to try to catch fish.

"A crab!" Sammy exclaims, leaning forward to look at it. It was a fairly decent-sized crab that crawled back into it's hole in the sand.

"Where did it go?" Ben asks.

"Down in here," Kenji states, peeking into the hole. The crab pinches his nose, startling him. "YAGH!" he shouts, pulling back and shaking his head. The crab still held on and hung from his face. The rest of the group was laughing too hard to help him.

After more sand shenanigans, the group begins to get a bit bored. "Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena," Sammy starts singing, absentmindedly doing the Macarena.

The campers follow her lead, soon followed by Yasmina's siblings. As they continue, they increase speed to the point where they were basically smacking themselves. Kenji aggressively shakes his hips. "EYYY MACARENA!"

After letting the kids collapse in laughter, the parents speak up. "It's getting darker, let's head back and take showers before it starts to storm," Mrs. Fadoula suggests.

Despite being bored a second ago, the group groans and helps pack up. It begins to rain lightly as they head home. "There's three showers," Mrs. Fadoula says. "Two in the bathrooms and one outside."

"I want the outside one!" Jabari claims. Him and Habeeba start arguing over it.

"Can I abstain?" Sammy requests.

"Mm… you're all sandy…" Yasmina's mother mutters. "I'd rather you not track in a lot of sand, but if it's too traumatic for you, I guess you could try to brush off as much sand as you can…"

"Do you want us to just hose you down?" Brooklynn asks.

Sammy groans. "I guess I could handle a quick rinse down…"

While Jabari takes the first round in the outside shower, Kenji—being covered in sand from head to toe—takes the shower in the blue room. Sammy took the shower in the peachy, coral bathroom. Yasmina and Brooklynn sat outside the shower to make her feel safe. She shivers as the water from the shower head hits her. "Everything okay?" Yasmina asks.

"It's uncomfortable…" Sammy whimpers. "Distract me."

"What's your favorite color?" Brooklynn asks, shrugging at the athlete.

"... Orange, orange, and orange," Sammy says, calling back an old joke.

"Seahorses or brightly colored fish?" Yasmina asks, looking around at the beachy decor.

"... Bright fish," Sammy picks.

"Dolphin or sea Turtle?" Brooklynn asks.

"Dolphin," the parapelgic choses.

"Would you rather be able to fly or control fire?" Yasmina asks.

"Probably… fly…" Sammy mumbles.

"I've always wanted to fly," Brooklynn admits.

"I've always wanted to control fire," Yasmina smirks.

"Naturally," Sammy comments wryly, turning off the water. She dries off her upper half, pulls on a bra and tank top, then her friends help her out of the bathtub. Then she dries off the rest of her and pulls on shorts.

"Do you need help, Yaz?" Brooklynn asks.

"Uhhhhh… I mean… it can be difficult…" the athlete mutters. "I guess you guys can stay in here?"

"Did you not have to change in the locker room in front of the other girls during track?" Sammy asks.

"Yeah, didn't make me any more comfortable being naked in front of people," Yasmina grumbles.

Brooklynn holds her arm as she takes off her swimsuit and helps her friend into the shower. The two look away to give their friend privacy. After a minute in the shower, Yasmina speaks up. "I need to tell my siblings about what happened…"

"What happened?" Sammy asks, then slaps her head. "Oh, right, the pregnancy."

"How do I explain this to them?" Yasmina begins to ramble. "Habeeba is too young to understand how I got pregnant, certainly too young to understand why. Jabari's had the talk, but he's going to look at me with the utmost expression of disgust! Ghaleb will be able to understand everything, but how can I explain it all to him before he certainly tackles Ben with a knife?!"

"Well, let's calm down for a moment," Brooklynn sighs. "We can have Darius and Kenji block off an entrance. Ben could probably climb down the back and escape. We can give him a five minute head start at least if he runs now. We could have Kenji's father pick him up in a helicopter and bring him back. Ben might have to be a fugitive for a while, but I'm sure Ghaleb will calm down eventually."

Yasmina starts cackling. "Is that supposed to make me feel better?!" But her tone was more light hearted.

"In all seriousness, besides Ghaleb's overprotectiveness, I think it will go over well," Sammy says. "I didn't know about the birds 'n the bees back when Holly got pregnant, either, but she explained the situation as best she could. You can tell them all at once and then pull each one aside later and explain it at their level."

"Yeah… The thing I'm most worried about is Ghaleb literally murdering Ben," the athlete sighs. "Ugh, they're not even going to believe me at first. It's April fools!"

"This was kind of a bad day to announce it," Brooklynn smirks sadly.

"I didn't want to in the first place," she reminds them, sticking her head out behind the curtain. "You two insisted."

"Hey! You were the one worried about not getting your period!" Brooklynn protests.

"It needed to come out, anyway," Sammy gets between them. She sighs. "This is a birthday you'll never forget."

"Darn right…" Yasmina grumbles, finishing her shower. She wraps her towel around her and Brooklynn helps her out.

As the athlete dries off, Sammy helps drag Sammy out into the living room. "I don't need people to be in the shower with me," she chuckles.

Jabari—fresh out of the shower himself—gives her a look of confusion. "You guys took a shower together?"

"No, Sammy and Yaz need help," Brooklynn explains, clearing up the misunderstanding. She heads back into the bathroom, biting her lip. "Um…"

"Can you help me to the couch?" Yasmina asks, then frowns. "What? Is something wrong?"

"Oh, no, nothing," Brooklynn shakes her head, biting her tongue and saving what she wanted to say for later. She helps her friend out so that she could use the shower.

While the rest of the group cleans up, Yasmina sits on the couch, her knee bouncing anxiously. "Can we do presents?" Habeeba asks.

"There's presents?" the athlete asks. Her friends wince.

"Of course there's presents," Mrs. Fadoula scoffs.

"I made ya a card but I forgot about gifts," Sammy says sheepishly.

"Well, what kind of a friend are you?" Yasmina asks sarcastically. She takes the envelope and opens it, yelping as glitter falls out onto her lap.

"April fools!" Sammy exclaims, laughing.

"Oh, you did me dirty with this one!" the athlete exclaims, half throwing the envelope at her friend so that Sammy got a big faceful of glitter.

"Here's my gift," Kenji says, handing her a gift card.

Yasmina inspects it, wary after the glitter bomb from Sammy, and finally pulls it out. "Ooh, seventy-five dollar gift card to the Gianfortoni pizzeria?" she says, pretty excited. "Expires… a second after opening?!"

Kenji cackles, falling over. "April fools!"

Yasmina frustratedly throws the card at him. "I'm betting Marianna is behind this," she frowns.

"Yeah, I headed over to the restaurant and asked if I could get a gift card," Kenji says, recovering from his honking laugh. "She was the one who came up with the idea of a fake card."

Yasmina sputters, reluctantly accepting the real card and checking it over for fraud.

"Here's my present," Ben says, handing her a small box.

She opens it and glares at him. "It's empty."

"It has oxygen, vital to survival," he grins sheepishly. "April fools?"

"You, too?!" she exclaims.

"Okay, we were all busy and kinda forgot to get a gift," Ben explains. "Except Kenji. We'll get you a belated gift."

"My homies, man," Yasmina barks out a laugh. "Pranking me and didn't have the decency to give me a gift afterwards."

Brooklynn shrugs at her. "I'll get you something later. Sorry about forgetting. It's been busy."

"I understand," the athlete nods, accepting a slip of paper from Darius. "Coupon for a free hug, redeemable at your nearest friend," she reads, before pulling Darius into a hug. "Aww, I love it! This isn't a prank, right?"

"No, I'm better than the others," Darius grins.

"Look at you getting brownie points," Ghaleb snorts, handing her a small bag.

Yasmina opens it and jumps slightly. Pulling out a toy spider, she glares at him. "Really?"

He merely chuckles. "April fools!"

Rolling her eyes, the athlete pulls out a tiny sketchbook and thanks him. Next, she opens up Habeeba, Jabari, and her parent's gifts. Jabari again pulled an April fools gag. "Is my life a joke?" she asks.

"No, but your birthday is," Kenji quips, earning a smack from her.

"Are you going to wear your ring?" Habeeba asks, holding up the ring she gave her sister. It was a silver, gothic dragon with emerald eyes.

"Yeah," Yasmina nods, letting her sister put it on her left hand.

Habeeba laughs. "It looks like a wedding ring," she states after putting it on her sister's ring finger.

"Haha, who proposed to me? A dragon?" Yasmina asks.

"No, Ben!" Habeeba teases.

The two in question widen their eyes.

"It was after he saved you from the Mosasaurus pit!" Habeeba begins to spin a tale, just to mess with her sister. "You were stranded in the middle of the lagoon saying, 'Save me, Ben! Save me!'"

"That's not what happened, I saved myself! And Sammy and Darius!" Yasmina protests.

"And then the Moso came closer and you fainted!" Habeeba continues, laughing as she falls over in imitation. "And Ben swoops in on a Pterodactyl and saves Princess Yasmina! And then proposes to her!"

"Never once rode a Pterodactyl," Ben chuckles.

"And then they got married in secret on the island and live happily ever after with five kids!" Habeeba declares.

While the group laughs, Yasmina drops the bomb. "And on that note, I'm pregnant."

Her siblings laugh at first. "And I'm a dog," Jabari quips.

"Then I guess we'll have to start feeding you on the floor," Yasmina mumbles.

"Nice try," Ghaleb tschs. "Poor idea since you're an Anti-romantic, but whatever."

"I'm serious," Yasmina says solemnly.

"Nice to meet you serious," Jabari jokes.

"She's not kidding," Brooklynn insists.

"Not believing you, you're in cahoots with her," Jabari scoffs.

"Sammy, is she serious?" Ghaleb asks, crossing his arms.

Sammy nods, dead serious. "We didn't believe it either, but it… explains a lot."

"Who's the father?" he asks.

The campers glance at each other. Yasmina uncomfortably sits forward, deciding how much to say in front of her younger siblings. "I… It was back before we went to see our cousins and family… I… wanted to get over my fear of romance… was too impatient… I didn't want to wait… I didn't want to live in fear of it anymore… So… So I turned to the boy I trusted the most…"

"And you wanted to have a baby?" Habeeba asks in shock.

"I, no… F***," Yasmina mutters, rubbing her face. "I didn't think this through…"

"Do you know where babies come from?" Kenji asks, making the parents raise their eyebrows.

"From a seed? By kissing?" Habeeba guesses.

Before Kenji could say anything, Mrs. Fadoula steps in to save her child's innocence. "Yes, and Yazzy did a bit too much kissing," she glares at her eldest daughter, who looks sheepish.

"Oh, that's why Sammy's parents don't want them kissing boys until they're married," Habeeba says, revelation appearing on her face.

"Yes, exactly, Yaz was just very reckless that day," Kenji agrees, getting a couch pillow thrown at his face.

"I was… desperate," Yasmina admits, biting her lip.

"For… kissing?" Jabari says with contempt, glaring at her with disgust.

"For love," she cringes. "I… I'm stupid… I just wanted to overcome my fears and feel truly loved… It's… it's complicated…"

Ghaleb isn't buying it completely and Jabari is on the fence. "You still haven't said who," he states suspiciously as Brooklynn comes out of the bathroom with the test.

"She's being serious," the pinkette says, showing him the test.

Ghaleb tschs at it, still wary of believing it. "Who's the 'father?'"

Kenji and Darius have slowly moved in front of the hallway entrance, prepared to take him on if he moved to attack. Ben perched nervously on the couch, ready to run at a moment's notice.

Yasmina gulps. "Ben…"

Ghaleb is silent for a moment, glancing at the boys in their positions. Their readiness to move convinces him more. "You b******," he says calmly, then lunges at the couch.

Ben screeches, jumps over the couch arm and races down the hall. Kenji and Darius intercede the raging brother and struggle to hold him back. Ghaleb finally knocks them over while his sister shouts at him to stop and searches the rooms, slamming the doors open.

"Ghaleb, don't go destroying the house!" Mrs. Fadoula shouts, in the middle of cooking pizza.

As Ghaleb is facing the other direction, Ben sneaks past him and hides between the couches.

"Where did he go?!" Ghaleb snaps, coming back into the living room.

"Okay, can you just calm down!" Yasmina snaps, standing up and hopping over to him. "You act like it's your right to control me!"

"No, I don't!" he insists.

"Yes, you do! You think that you can control who I fall in love with! You think you can control who I'm friends with! The boys I know!"

"I'm protective!"

Yasmina cackles dryly. "Protective? You've gone past that! You're a dictator now! A protector gives freedom! You're trying to control who I can be with!"

"Since when do you want to be with someone?!" he asks in surprise.

"I'm scared of romance, not adverse to it!" she explains. "I find it hard to trust others! I want to be able to trust someone enough to love them! You pushing away everyone who tries to get close to me isn't helping!"

Ghaleb shuts his mouth and listens, finally seeming to get that he has a problem.

Yasmina continues, heated. "I need to learn how to build healthy relationships on my own. I need to learn how to be vulnerable and trust others. But if you try to control who I'm friends with, that's not helping! Being on the island was horrible, but it helped forge close bonds and helped me open up and be vulnerable. Forced me to be vulnerable, and our friendships were tried! I trust them with my life because they've proven themselves! You know me! I'm paranoid of trusting others! Do you think I would trust them if I didn't know for sure that they have good intentions?"

Ghaleb places his thumbs in his pockets and flaps his arms, refusing to make eye contact. "No…"

"Am I stupid and naive?" she pushes.

"No…"

"So… Why are you insistent that Ben is a horrible influence and that I shouldn't trust him as much as I do?" she asks rhetorically. "Maybe because you're paranoid, too? Maybe because you care about me, but you fear not being protective enough?"

Her brother is taken aback, but tries not to show it.

"I know you hate yourself for not standing up to our Father," Yasmina says, baring his soul. "But you're going overboard in compensation. I do appreciate you trying to protect me, but I don't like it when you control me. All you're doing is making it harder for me to make relationships. All you're doing is pushing away people from me. Ben has proven himself beyond a shadow of a doubt that he isn't going to brutally hurt me. He'll make mistakes but it's never going to be his intention. Stop being so hard on him. You're not perfect, either. And stop trying to control me."

Ghaleb sighs. "... I'm… I'm sorry…"

"Okay, we good?" she asks. "Can Ben come out? He didn't take advantage of me. I came onto him first. He refused for a while. Don't down on him for it. Put the blame on me."

"... I won't kill him," her older brother grumbles.

Ben squeaks a bit as he pops up and timidly moves on.

"... Off subject, but I think I got sunburned," Kenji winces, rubbing the shoulder Ghaleb knocked into the wall.

"And this is why I told you to put on sunscreen!" Mrs. Fadoula says exasperatedly.

"You're going to be a parent?" Habeeba asks a little excitedly.

"It seems so," Yasmina sighs, sitting next to Ben on the couch.

"The baby's going to be the same age as his or her aunt!" Habeeba laughs, pointing to her pregnant mother.

"Pretty lucky, to be honest," Darius says. "At least your mother can walk you through everything."

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Habeeba asks.

"We won't be able to find out for a while," Brooklynn tells her.

"What would you guys name it?" the little girls asks, spouting off questions like a machine gun.

"Calm down, she just found out she's pregnant," Sammy chuckles.

Yasmina whispers in Ben's ear and a big smile creeps onto his face. "Well, I think we know what the first and middle name would be," Yasmina grins.

"So soon?" Darius asks.

"What is it?" Habeeba asks, excited.

The two parents-to-be look at each other and say; "First name, April, middle name, Fools."

The group is silent for a moment, taking in the information before chaos erupts. "WHAT?!" Darius exclaims.

"Wait, it was a prank all along?!" Brooklynn's jaw drops.

"Haha! I knew you wouldn't do it!" Jabari laughs.

"Wait, there's no baby?" Habeeba asks, slightly disappointed.

"Hold on, what?! Are you serious?" Sammy asks in disbelief.

"You mean to tell me that you led us on THIS ENTIRE DAY?!" Kenji shouts.

"F*** YOU!" Ghaleb exclaims, flipping his sister off.

"It's finally over," Ben sighs with happy relief while Yasmina cackles at the chaos she created.

"You took that too far!" Ghaleb accuses.

"SAYS the guy who got the entire school to convince me I had the wrong day!" Yasmina roars. "I told you I would get pay back for that!"

"Hey! That's different!" Ghaleb argues. "We didn't do mental damage to you!"

"The entire school thought I was laughing stock!" Yasmina argues. "You guys embarrassed me and pulled a cruel mind trick!"

"Well, it wasn't this mean!" her brother sputters.

"Yeah, but this prank helped me open up about stuff I'm normally not comfortable with!" she points out. "Like your issue with Ben."

"I'm just glad I don't have to pretend anymore," Ben sighs. "I tried so hard not to laugh."

"We did laugh, too, we just played it off as nervousness," Yasmina smirks.

"But… it wasn't real?" Brooklynn stutters, taken aback.

"No, the test was fake," Yasmina explains. "I planted the fake box in my Mom's suitcase. Purposefully hid my period symptoms when I had it two weeks ago."

"I gotta be honest, you had me fooled," Sammy sighs. "Your crying and emotional wreck back there was pretty convincing."

"Heheheh, I know," the athlete says, beaming with pride.

"Hey, we didn't prank you! Why did you include us?!" Darius protests.

"Cause KENJI! Said I couldn't act!" Yasmina spits. "It was the night of Brandon's birthday party and you said I couldn't act! So HA!"

"You b****," Kenji glares at her.

"You're serious? This was a prank?" Brooklynn asks.

"Yeah, Ben's parents are in on it," Yasmina says.

"But all your tension between each other for the past few weeks, it was all fake?" Brooklynn blinks.

"So, here's the real story," Yasmina chuckles.

The thought sparked a memory to resurface. "Oh, Ben, there's something I've been meaning to talk about…" she said softly. "I need to say it now while I'm thinking about it, otherwise it will be too late someday…"

"O-okay," he stuttered.

"So, you know my family played a big prank on me two years ago for my birthday, right?" she said, sitting up. "The March thirty-first prank where they convinced me it wasn't my birthday?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "The one you absolutely hated and promised revenge for?"

She smirked evilly. "Exactly… What if we convinced my family that you got me pregnant?"

Ben fell off the couch. "What?!"

"I'm not trying to eavesdrop, but what?" Mrs. Pincus asked, poking her head out of the kitchen.

"What's the most unlikely thing to happen?" the athlete asked. "You getting me pregnant, right?"

"You want to successfully convince them of it, right?" he frowned.

"Yeah, it's not COMPLETELY unbelievable, but we could pull it off, right?" she shrugged.

"I'd laugh too much!" he exclaimed.

"No, I'm sure we could come up with a story that could fool them," she insisted. "It's all about the acting. I'm sure I can convince them. I mean, hey, they convinced me that the day before didn't happen."

"Yeah, that's much easier than convincing everyone that Miss Anti-romantic and Mr. Abstinence now have a baby!" he laughed.

"Come on, I can be a believable actress, right?" she crossed her arms.

"YOU can!" he exclaimed, cackling. "I'm not doubting your acting, I'm doubting MY acting!"

"Come on, with the right story you could do it, right?" she asked.

"Yaz, you were the one who made fun of my acting skills on the island," he reminded her.

"Fair point… Let's at least TRY to come up with a convincing story, please?" she pleaded. "I really wanna get them back and I really wanna try this prank."

Ben sighed, letting his head flop back. "Okay… Let's just run through scenarios and see if this is believable."

"Eventually, we hit on a story that felt genuine to ourselves and how we would act," Yasmina explains. "Well, more or less."

"My parents were in on the prank," Ben adds for liability.

"I know, I can't believe your mother didn't tell me," Mrs. Fadoula rolls her eyes.

"Wait, you've already talked to her?" Ben asks in shock.

"I might have caved quicker with my parents," Yasmina winces.

Ben rolls his eyes. "That explains why I didn't get a talk from your Dad."

"Your parents were your main targets! Why did we get the brunt of the prank!" Brooklynn asks.

"You guys were the test subjects and alibis?" Yasmina winces. "I'll explain more in depth later."

"Bruh, now I don't trust you," Kenji laughs.

"Eh, this was wayyyy too stressful for this outcome," Yasmina sighs. "I'm never doing this again. Lying to your loved ones for the sake of a prank isn't fun. I've learned my lesson… Still satisfied with being able to say APRIL FOOLS!"

"... All your awkwardness and then being fine…" Brooklynn says, still in shock.

"Pretty often, we forgot that the prank was in place," Yasmina explains. "Those were the moments when we were fine. Then we'd remember and awkwardly try to save the prank. Times like Kenji's trial felt too serious to be setting it up, so we set aside the acting and pretending."

"I was so nervous and giggly," Ben chuckles. "Every time we were supposed to be awkward, I'm like, 'Act like… you're embarrassed to see her.' But then I would almost laugh!"

"I pretended like I was acting out a scene from something in my head," Yasmina smirks. "It was like writing but with my words and actions. I can get pretty emotional with my own stories."

"You're a jerk," Darius says, but he was laughing. "You'll have some explaining to do later, but all I smell is pizza."

"Yeah, let's eat!" Habeeba says, getting over the disappointment for food.

"You never got me to begin with," Jabari declares proudly, sitting on a stool at the island.

"Just so you know, we weren't a part of the March 31st prank, so we can totally get you back," Kenji says, sitting down at the small table.

Yasmina goes to protests but bites her tongue and sighs. "Fair enough. I'll accept one mind prank from you guys since this was a bit uncalled for. Except from Ben, he was my accomplice."

Her friends and family forgive her for the most part as they sit down. Brooklynn was quieter than usual as Mrs. Fadoula hands out plates. "... I can't believe Kenji passed up the perfect Kpop reference," she comments.

"Which one?" he asks, a mouthful of pizza.

Brooklynn shakes her head. "Not saying until the end of the day. I will say this: it was said more than once and you never picked up on it."

The wild Kenji squints in frustration, trying to figure out what she was talking about as they eat their dinner.

After dinner, the group plays a couple board games to let their stomach digest things a bit. "Alright, the rhyming game," Mr. Fadoula says, picking the card from the top of the deck. "I say a word, and then we go around saying something that rhymes with it. Words can't be repeated and if you hesitate for too long, you lose."

The group nods.

"... Pit," he says.

"Sit!" Habeeba says, sitting next to him.

"Uh, uh, uh, kit!" Darius says, panicking.

"... Bit?" Ben says, equally as stressed as his friend.

"Fit!" Sammy exclaims.

"Git," Brooklynn says.

"That's not a word," Jabari complains.

"Yeah, it's someone who's annoying," Brooklynn retorts.

"Moving on," Mrs. Fadoula says quickly. "Jabari?"

"Uhh, hit!" he stutters.

"It," Ghaleb says.

"Lit!" Kenji laughs.

"Mit," Mrs. Fadoula says.

"Quit," Yasmina says.

The others nod. "T…" her father bites his tongue. "Wit," he says quickly.

"Zit!" Habeeba laughs.

Darius freezes, unsure what to say. "... Are there any other options?"

"Tit and s***," Yasmina says the other two words no one was willing to say aloud. "Darius loses!"

"Hey! No fair!" Darius laughs.

After playing a couple rounds, the group hops in the cars and heads to a local ice cream shop. New inside jokes ensue. "You guys got a big van," Ben comments.

"If it was white, the Mayo Man would ride in it," Sammy giggles at Kenji.

"The Muffin Man?" he asks.

"No, the Mayo Man," she laughs.

"But do you know the Muffin Man?" he asks.

"The Muffin Man?" she blinks.

"The Muffin Man!" he exclaims. He pats both thighs and then claps his hands in a rhythm. "Do you know the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man. Do you know the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man."

"He lives in my basement," Yasmina says, clapping along with him.

The group laughs.

"He kidnapped my mother?" Darius adds cautiously, laughing before he could finish.

"Do you know the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man, the Muffin Man!" Kenji sings. "Add to it, Ben!"

"He… lives in my dumpster?" the boy wheezes.

"Brooklynn!" Kenji directs.

The girl wides her eyes. "He lives in my shower?"

"Sammy!" Kenji laughs.

"He took my door knobs and replaced them with hands!" she exclaims enthusiastically.

The group erupts in giggles as Mr. Fadoula quirks an eyebrow at them in the rear view mirror. "You guys are weird," he comments.

"We know," Darius grins from the floor. Since everyone else had a seat, he was forced to sit on the floor in the middle. It wasn't a far drive, anyway.

"The Muffin Man got creepy," Brooklynn chuckles.

"You must sell your soul to buy his muffins," Yasmina says with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"But they grant you eternal happiness," Kenji adds, laughing.

The group heads into the small restaurant and get ice cream. "I got coffee so I'm going to be suuuuuper caffeinated later," Kenji declares.

"You act like this anyway," Mrs. Fadoula calls him out on his bullcrap.

"Imagine not getting an ice cream cone and getting a cup instead," Darius comments, licking his treat. "You're just weird."

The campers glance at Ben and Mrs. Fadoula—the only ones who didn't have cones. "We're gluten free," Ben reminds them.

"Okay, allergies are the exception," Kenji excuses, laughing.

"We need to sing happy birthday to Yazzy," Habeeba mischievously reminds everyone.

The athlete pales from her spot on the bench. "No… please no."

Naturally, the group does as loud as they can. Yasmina freezes, then hides her face in embarrassment. "Really?" she asks when they're finished. "You're gonna give me secondhand embarrassment."

"You pranked us," Kenji retorts.

"You pranked me, too!" she argues.

"Okay, we're sorry about the March 31st prank," her mother sighs.

"Thank you," Yasmina nods. "That's all I wanted… As well as to get revenge."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you've reminded us for the past two years," Ghaleb grumbles.

---

"The lighting at night is so pretty," Brooklynn comments. "Can we take a walk on the beach?"

After a little debate, the campers, Ghaleb, and Mr. Fadoula head out to walk along the beach at night. The sun had dipped down below the horizon and the moon was beginning to rise. It came up where the ocean ended and casted an eerie, yet tranquil glow over the dark waters. Little stars speckled the black sky. The blackish blue waters were scary, yet also very beautiful. Cold seaspray and wind blew in their faces and whipped their hair and clothes. The cold sea laps at the sand as the group walks along, heading for a beautifully lit pier farther down.

"The ocean looks really scary at night," Sammy says, wrapping her arms tightly around Ghaleb's shoulders.

"Yeah… but also mysterious and kind of mystical," Yasmina murmurs, riding on Kenji's back.

"Look at that glowing light," Kenji says in fake awe, gesturing to the moon. "It's so… beautiful! It's calling to me!"

"No, no, follow this light!" Ghaleb laughs, turning on the flashlight on his phone.

"The light calls to me!" Kenji says, wading into the waves as Yasmina laughs.

"No, here boy! Follow this light!" Ghaleb laughs.

Sammy buries her face in his shirt, getting nervous as Yasmina and Kenji wade further into the ocean.

Yasmina sees this and taps his shoulder. "Let's head back, the joke's been made."

"Yeahhhh," he agrees, heading back to appease their nervous friend.

While the four up ahead goof off, Brooklynn hangs back, videoing the sea. "You good?" Darius asks, checking in on her.

"Yeah… just… need to recharge my social battery," she says, holding down her thin shirt as the wind blows.

Darius offers her his thin sweatshirt before moving ahead of her slightly to where Ben walked. "Hey," he says as Mr. Fadoula hangs back silently with Brooklynn. "How… What was up with that prank? I mean, the emotions, the words, the… it all felt real."

"Some of it was real," Ben admits, then backtracks. "Well, obviously not the main part of the prank. Yaz and I never did anything like that. We still haven't done anything more than kiss, and that was back on the island when she lost her leg. It wasn't even for love, it was to calm her down and distract her."

"Yeah… you… you've never been a good actor," Darius says. "I know Yaz carried most of the acting and pranking on her shoulders, but… You were pretty convincing, too. How'd you do that?"

Ben is silent for a moment. "Same way she did," he answers. "By tapping into our fears and feelings."

"So, besides the obvious prank… Most of what you said was genuine?"

"Yeah," Ben nods. "My… My promise to her to be there come what may was genuine. My fear that I would selfishly act on my feelings and push her deeper into her shell was real. You guys thinking I'm perfect truly did bother me…"

"Why… Why did that bother you?" Darius asks. "Why does it bother you that we think you're perfect? Or just really good?"

"Because I'm not," he sighs. "It… It sets unrealistic expectations on me and I don't want to disappoint you guys. I'm not always going to be patient and listening. I'm not going to always be good and make the right decisions… And sometimes I'm afraid that I'll hurt one of you guys with my mistakes… I'm afraid of going back to that… cowardly kid I was pre-island. That fear manifested in my side of the prank."

"Being unable to tell Yaz no and giving in?" Darius asks.

"Yeah," he nods. "And I'm human. I'm not perfect. I'm never going to be the perfect example for you guys to follow… I'll just disappoint."

Darius looks down at the shells in the sand, taking in what his friend was saying.

"I… She really wanted to do it," the blonde boy says. "At first, it seemed like revenge but then she got emotional… We tried to come up with a believable story to convince her parents. Originally we were going to include you guys in the prank… before you guys said she wasn't a good actress, that is. We discussed how we thought everyone would react if this was real, and she thought her parents would kick her out… Suddenly, the fear was real."

"You mean, in a way, she was living her fears through the prank?" Darius tilts his head.

"More like… testing her loved ones," Ben frowns. "She's not good at handling emotions… All her trauma forced her to disconnect from emotion. She doesn't know how to reconnect to them… That's what we learned when trying to come up with a story. She knows her abilities… She knows what she can do physically… Beyond that, what she knows about herself is based on what other people tell her. Emotionally, she's distant and disconnected from herself."

"She can't feel emotions?"

"No, she can feel emotions, just not hers. Er, well…"

"Yaz can feel her emotions, she just doesn't want to sometimes," Darius says.

"It's more that she doesn't know how to," Ben explains. "She can feel them… But again, her way to deal with trauma was to suppress her feelings and disconnect from them. Any strong emotion scares her because she doesn't always know how to handle them…"

"Sounds pretty hard to deal with," he murmurs.

"She's not disconnected from emotion entirely," he sighs. "She can empathize with us… She can feel deeply what her random characters she draws can feel… She'll come up with stories for the characters she draws and… she feels them on a deeper level… But connecting with herself is harder…"

"Wait, if she can connect with others emotions, but not herself, what if Yaz writes herself as a character and tries to get in touch with herself that way?" Darius suggests.

"Exactly what the prank became," Ben smiles ruefully. "Once I figured out that that was, at least, a subconscious motive for this prank… I agreed more easily to it."

"It's a bit annoying to know that she lied and fooled us so easily, but I can understand that motive," Darius nods.

"I think it was also a way to test her loved ones, subconsciously," Ben continues. "Particularly her parents. Give them a scenario that she felt was horrible and bound to make them hate her and see how they'd react. I think that's why she gave in so easily when telling them… She was expecting anger and yelling and frustration. She's very sensitive about the subject of love… any love, but especially romantic love. I think she truly did believe they'd kick her out if she got pregnant… She talked to Holly about her pregnancy. Holly and Rio were in on the prank, helping us with it. Holly explained how she felt during her pregnancy… How her parents reacted… Even knowing what happened with Holly, I think Yaz still believed her parents would hate her."

"If she was afraid of them kicking her out, why pull the prank and risk them being angry?" Darius asks.

"Better to know now," Ben shrugs. "Better to know if she needs to pull away rather than bond with them. I think it being a prank made it a safe way to test her parents… She found what she felt would make them the angriest, then tested their reaction… If they didn't kick her out when they believed the prank was real, then maybe it's safe to bond… If not, she knows now what kind of parents they are and there's not as much damage done to her…"

Darius is silent for a second. "Do you think she was testing you? With her reaction?"

"... Maybe," Ben murmurs. "I think the line between reality and the prank got blurred when she 'confessed.' My promise was real… I think her fears of losing me were real… As for what else was real, I don't know."

"Well… I just hope this prank helps more than it did annoy," Darius smirks at his friend.

Up ahead, Kenji broaches the same subject to the athlete on his back. "So… Be honest, Yaz, was revenge the only motive for your pranking? Cause you seemed pretty convinced yourself, sometimes."

"Convinced?" she lifts an eyebrow.

"I highly doubt you're that good of an actress," he says. "You're better than I thought, but are you telling me that there was nothing real about what you were feeling?"

"Obviously, the romance aspect wasn't real, but… Kenji's right, you did seem pretty emotional during the whole thing," Sammy pipes up.

"And what about you admitting you had a crush on him?" Kenji protests. "You know. 'The whole world is coming to an end!' after you ran out of the house yelling, 'F***!' Was that a part of the prank?"

Yasmina winces. "Uhhhh… I wish… No, unfortunately, that wasn't acting…"

"I'll have to take your word for it," Ghaleb grumps.

"No, my realizing I have a crush just… kinda made the prank more complicated," the athlete groans. "And his little confession didn't help there! The whole, 'I'll stand with you come what may'? Gah! Why does it make my heart go BADUMP!"

The others laugh. "And why should we believe you?" Kenji asks suspiciously.

"What motive do I have to lie to you about having a crush on Ben?" she asks. "I'm opening up… On second thought, no, I have zero crush on anyone. I'm fine!"

"Yeah, it's gonna be hard to believe you now," Sammy tells her.

"... I'm starting to regret doing this prank," the athlete slaps her face. "More so than before… I'm sorry for lying to you guys… I wouldn't want that done to me…"

"Yeah, it was a pretty low blow to convince us for that long," Kenji says. "And it will be hard to take anything you say seriously now."

"Same, I don't know what is true now…" she murmurs. "I mean, I know we didn't sleep together… But… I'm not sure how much of what I said was a lie… Some of… Some of what I told you guys… some of it was real… And I'd like to be able to say that I can easily tell what was real and what wasn't but… reality got blurred… I wanted the story to be convincing and… and I convinced myself…"

"So, that's how you were so good at acting," Sammy narrows her eyes.

"Yeah," Yasmina nods. "It was like… acting just to act was hard. I tried to act it out with Ben—the confession, not the… you know—and I couldn't do it well. We both started laughing as I tried to explain, 'Oh, yeah, so, um, I'm pregnant because of Ben.' It was just too awkward… But when we tried to figure out why I would do it… cause obviously you guys would ask… things became different… Suddenly, I… I was… I was looking for a reason to do it with him… And… And I found one… Which kind of terrified me."

"Name one good reason why you should sleep with him," Ghaleb says, rolling his eyes as she sent him a warning glare.

"The reason for the conversation I told Sammy and Brooklynn about…" she mumbles. "I… I'm terrified of love… He kept asking me how we would convince you guys when I hate romance… I don't hate it… Sometimes I want it… But I'm afraid of it… So we began asking what would make me not afraid of it enough to do it… Finally came around to conclude that I would only do it with someone I trust immensely…"

"A.K.A. Ben," Kenji butts in.

"... And… I kind of wanted to…" she murmurs. "Just to see what it was like. Just to see… Just to feel loved in that way… And that's where I came up with the idea that I slept with him to overcome my fear… I didn't want to admit to myself that I came up with the idea through my feelings… Kept trying to tell myself that I was feeling that way because of the idea… The truth is… I love him… and it terrifies me."

"So… most of what you told us wasn't a lie, you just used it to convince us that you guys did it," Sammy concludes.

"Yeah…" Yasmina nods. "I also… still don't really trust my parents."

"Cause they pranked you?" Kenji asks.

"Cause of abuse…" Ghaleb says knowingly, side stepping a large chunk of ship wood washed up on the shore. "Cause how can you trust someone if they never stood up for you… How can you trust someone new if someone who was there from the beginning didn't love you…"

"Exactly…" Yasmina mumbles. "I mean… wouldn't getting pregnant be one of the worst things I could do? Wouldn't they kick me out? … Our bio Dad would kick me out for it…"

"So you were testing them," Sammy says. "Testing to see how they'd react… If it was a bad reaction, not much harm done."

"Yeah… In a way, see how far I can push them before they snap," Yasmina nods. "Except they didn't… They just sighed and told me it would be okay. That we would get through this. They said we would try to address the issues underlying my motives… They recognized I was… I was looking for love… Instead of condemning me and kicking me out, they came closer and promised to get through it… Even though Ben was acting, his confession still hit hard… My friendship with you guys has been tried and tried again on the island, but still… You guys stuck with me… It… How did I get so lucky…"

"I guess this prank was more positive for you than I thought," Sammy smiles.

Yasmina nods, frowning. "I just… I realized… I'm sorry. I would feel pretty betrayed if you guys did this to me without reason… I should've just saved it for my parents and siblings… I shouldn't have lied to you guys the way I did…"

"I forgive ya," Sammy grins. "Knowing the emotional reasons behind it makes me happy you've learned so much about yerself, as well as came to trust your parents better."

"Ben and I had some really deep talks while planning this…" Yasmina murmurs. "I find it… easier to connect with emotions and let them out if I'm acting and… and feeling someone else's, you know? It's easier to feel emotions when they… when they aren't real. When they're just a scenario… Still… I… I don't know how I'd react if you guys did this…"

"Eh, I forgive you, too," Kenji shrugs, a little bent over from her weight. "It definitely sucks to be tricked like that, but I mess with you all the time, so I guess we're kind of even."

The athlete nods.

"Plus, it's not like I'm going to stop annoying you, anyway," Kenji grins mischievously.

"Of course," she rolls her eyes.

"I'm still trying to figure out what reference Brooklynn said I missed…" he mutters.

"Psht, I guess we're even," Ghaleb sputters. "I still think you were meaner with your prank, but… at least you've got comfort that Mom and Dad love you more than you think."

"You guys all forgive me?" Yasmina asks, the guilt from what she did starting to build.

Her friends nod. "I'm sure Darius and Brooklynn do, too," Sammy says. "Jabari was never convinced to begin with, I think, and Habeeba gets over things easily."

"Right…" Yasmina mumbles.

---

"Can we have a party party yeah?" Kenji asks. "A dance party downstairs?"

"I don't see why not," Mrs. Fadoula shrugs. "Just turn the light on."

"Whoop, whoop!" Darius exclaims as the group heads down underneath the house. The concrete wasn't exactly nice on their bare feet, but it wasn't painful.

Sammy sat down against the wooden stairs to play music. "Everybody do the Cha Cha Slide!" she laughs, grooving along with them as the campers and siblings dance.

Yasmina was able to pretty easily balance on her right foot and dance—that dance in particular was made up of mostly turns, hops, and stomps. "Uhhhh, what do I do?" she asks, laughing as the song told her to stomp with her left foot.

"You know, right foot stomp and hops are all the same to you," Darius says, laughing as she goodnaturedly glares at him.

Despite a couple disabilities, the group has fun dancing. Yasmina tried to fight Kenji for control of the music, but eventually he gets a turn choosing songs. "It goes like, left and right, left and right, left and right," he sings, enjoying pissing off the athlete.

"How do you do this dance?" Habeeba asks.

"Okay, so imagine you're pouring salt on something," he says, lifting his left hand and 'pouring salt' twice. "Then you go with your right hand. And you just bounce to the rhythm."

After a couple other songs, Kenji gets around to teaching Darius some choreography. "I've been trying to teach him the Maniac chorus," Kenji explains. "He's horrible," he whispers.

Darius rolls his eyes. "Come on, give me another chance!"

Kenji shakes his head with a smile. "Sorry, I don't think dancing is your strong suit, but you can try."

Sammy skips to the pre-chorus and Kenji was right: Darius was pretty bad. Stiff, off beat, no rhythm. That suddenly changed at the chorus, where it became clear he was holding out on the others. With a devilish grin, Darius pulled out clean, sharp and on beat movements that looked on par with professionals. His grin only got worse as Kenji stares in shock. "April fools!" he snickers. "I'm actually pretty good at dancing and picking things up quickly."

Kenji's face puffs up and he glares. "Why are you better than me?! I've been practicing that for about two weeks and I don't look half as good as yoU!"

Darius was prancing around like a chicken after that… particularly around Brooklynn, which the others did not fail to notice.

After an hour or so, Mrs. Fadoula calls them upstairs to get ready for bed. Wondering where Brooklynn went, Yasmina sticks her head out the door of the back deck. The pinkette was leaning on the railing, looking out at the black sky and twinkling stars. "Is everything okay?" Yasmina asks, limping out to stand next to her friend.

Brooklynn turns to her. While only one eye showed, there was a slight coldness to it. Or was it hollowness? "Nothing, just out here enjoying the cold air and alone time," Brooklynn shrugs, very little emotion in her voice. It was scary how monotone it was…

Yasmina bites her lip. Brooklynn's distant, emotionless behavior started after she revealed everything was a prank… Did her friend feel really betrayed? "I'm sorry about the prank," she apologizes quickly. "I know I took it a little too far, especially with you and the other guys. I should've included you guys… I was going to, until Kenji said I couldn't act and you guys agreed and my pride was a little wounded and…"

Brooklynn was staring at her with an unreadable expression. It was scaring the athlete. She rambles on, desperate to explain herself. "It… It was kind of a way to test my family. I was prepared for my parents to kick me out because that's how I thought they'd react. I was hoping they wouldn't, but I still tested them… They didn't and it built trust. I guess some of it was a trust builder for all of you… I'm sorry if it hurt you. I shouldn't have used a prank to scare you guys like that."

"It felt really real," Brooklynn says, monotone again.

"Yeah, yeah, it did," Yasmina agreed. "Even for me… I'm sorry… My own emotions, especially the ones related to trauma, scare me. I don't like to deal with them… I don't know how to deal with them, so I don't. But… But it's easier to deal with emotions that aren't real. It's easier to let go and feel other people's emotions… or my characters… It was easier to connect with my fears and feelings related to love when I was pretending… When it wasn't real… I just… This whole thing helped bring to light some of my problems… Or helped me express my issues in a way I've struggled with…"

She looks over at Brooklynn, who was eyeing her with that cold, emotionless expression. "I'm sorry…" Yasmina whispers. "I should've told you guys… Should've let you in…"

The pinkette sighs. "... But then you wouldn't trust our reactions. So you tricked us to get the real reactions."

"I'm sorry…" Yasmina whimpers, guilt becoming a heavy weight on her chest.

After what felt like hours, Brooklynn's stone cold expression turned into a sympathetic smile. "It's okay, I understand," she says. "It helped you get better emotionally and mentally. That's all I could ask for. It's okay."

Except it wasn't okay and Yasmina knew it. There was hidden pain in Brooklynn's voice and face. She was hurt. Deeply hurt. Yasmina knew why, but she didn't know exactly why. Did Brooklynn feel betrayed? Did she not like the lying? Was it just the nature of the prank itself? What exactly bothered the pinkette about the athlete's actions?

As Brooklynn heads inside, a sinking feeling settles in Yasmina's gut. She couldn't shake the feeling that she had just ruined everything she had ever built with her friend. Would this separate them forever? Did Brooklynn hate her now? Did Yasmina truly cause a rift between the two? Just for the sake of a prank? Even if there were underlying intentions and a bit of emotional healing that came of it, was it worth it if she lost Brooklynn's friendship?

Her words to Ben, while initially fake but starting to gain deeper meaning, come back. "I… I ruined your life… I ruined mine… I messed everything up…"

"Did I just destroy our friendship?" Yasmina painfully thinks, tearing up. The regret and guilt she felt was swallowing her up. The prank she pulled may not be real, but she still ended up with the same feelings… Regret. Guilt. Shame. Fear of losing a friend.

Despite the bed being Queen size, all six campers somehow managed to fit in it. "Again, I ask how is that comfortable?" Darius says as Sammy lays across their feet.

"It's nostalgic," the cowgirl murmurs with a giggle.

"Definitely nostalgic," Ben chuckles as he's squished up between Darius and Yasmina once again.

The group settles down, trying to fall asleep, when Kenji groans. "Dang it! I just remembered what I missed!"

"Huh?" Darius grunts.

"Anti-romantic!" the alpha male groans. "I had so many chances to reference that song, gosh darn it!"

Brooklynn chuckles against his back. "Told ya."

Stuck between Ben and Brooklynn, Yasmina gently touches the pinkette's shoulder. Ever so slightly, Brooklynn pulls away.

"Oh, God, what have I done?" Yasmina tearfully wonders as she stares up at the ceiling, slowly drifting off to sleep.

---

End author's note: Welp, hopefully I can say this, but: "HAPPY BELATED APRIL FOOLS!" XD