"Um," I said as we approached an old, beaten up looking school. "Why are we here?"

Drew was the first to answer. "This is where we went to middle school. That field right there," he pointed to a green, painted on, AstroTurf football field, "is where I got my first kiss."

"Me too," Marty laughed, shaking his head with a wide smile as if reminiscing on old memories.

"Okay, but," Elle said from next to me. "Why'd we come here?"

"Well," Drew shoved his hands in his pockets and turned away from the field, facing her. "We come here a lot, to, I don't know, chill out for a bit. And now that it's summer, we won't get screamed at for trespassing."

He paused for a second, thinking about what he just said. "Okay, maybe we will still get yelled at for trespassing, but when does that actually happen?"

I laughed.

"Jack, go get the balls," Kristin said to him, confusing me. He nodded quickly before scurrying away. He reappeared about thirty seconds later with a mesh bag full of about eight soccer balls.

I smiled. Soccer.

I have played soccer since I was in Kindergarten. In my first year of high school, I was the very first freshman captain to hail from my school. The seniors despised me for it, but I think they eventually got over it.

Since senior year is starting up soon, I had to prepare to be our captain. So far, I haven't started doing the workouts Coach gave us for the summer, but it's only the first day of summer. I'll start tomorrow.

Jack saw me eyeing the soccer balls so he opened the mesh bag and tossed me one. "You play?"

"Yeah," I nodded, doing a trick to show my emphasis.

"Oh, God, does she," Elle rolled her eyes. "In middle school she was on three travel teams in addition to our school's team."

"That's true," I kicked her the ball, and she did a trick to get it to her hands. "But you also played on one of those travel teams and the middle school team, too."

"That's true," she laughed as she kicked the ball back to Jack. He caught it and threw it back into the mesh bag, then gave the balls to Marty.

"So, what, is soccer the big sport here?"

"Nah," Jack shook his head with a slight smile. "We're baseball here."

"And he's your captain here," Drew put his arm across Jack's shoulder.

Captain, huh?

"Do you play baseball, too?" Elle asked Drew.

He shook his head. "I play golf. A sport for all the preps out there."

"Please," Kristin scoffed. "You're anything but preppy."

•

•

•

We ended up staying at the middle school for about an hour before we began to get tired.

Marty and I seemed to be the only people who noticed a fire crackling on the beach. I nudged Kristin and nodded my head toward it.

"Should we go?" I asked her.

"Why not," she shrugged, and faced me with a friendly smirk. "Maybe you can make new friends."

We approached a group of teenagers sat around a fire, empty bottles of beer scattered around the cool sand, and one of them was smoking what was either a cigarette or a joint.

"Kristin," one of the kids waved her to set next to them. "Jack, Marty, Drew, etcetera, come sit!"

I sat next to Kristin and Jack cautiously, not really sure what to do in this situation. I'm beginning to get tired, so I think I'm going to volunteer to go home soon.

"Sammy," the kid with the thick rimmed glasses on the other side of Jack offered his hand to me. "You're staying here this summer with Ms. Gannon, right?"

"Yeah, my friend and I are," I gestured to Elle with a wave of my hand. "Uh, Ms. Gannon is my grandma. I'm Beth."

"Bethany or Elizabeth?" he asked randomly, uncrossing his legs and now stretching them out in front of him.

"Uh, Bethany," I answer confusedly, looking from Sammy to Jack and then back to Sammy. He nodded before turning to the girl next to him.

"Don't mind Sammy," Jack whispers to me. "He may be on the drunk side."

I laughed, getting the attention of the girl next to Sammy. She was pretty, with light freckles and strawberry blonde hair, or at least it looked that color against the light of the flames.

"Hey, Jack," she said sweetly, looking from me to him.

He sighed audibly. "Hi, Lindsey."

"Who's your friend?" She was staring me down, and I honestly was getting paranoid, and I'm not sure why. It was almost as if her gaze was burning holes through my skin.

"This is Beth," he introduced me. "She's staying here for the summer."

"Great, well, enjoy Virginia Beach," she gave me a curt nod and a short smile that I would've thought was friendly if the tone in her voice wasn't so weird. It almost seemed...threatening?

"Thanks," I tried to smile at her, but couldn't. She didn't even acknowledge me, and soon enough she was engaged in conversation with Jack.

Uncomfortable, I turned to Kristin, who was introducing Elle to the boy who was smoking when we had first approached him.

"George, this is Ellen," she introduced them, and they gave each other a slight wave. "Ellen, George."

Kristin noticed I was watching them, so she introduced me, too. "George, this is Beth. Beth, likewise."

I smiled at him, and he took a sip of his beer before starting a conversion with Drew and Marty. I laughed as I noticed a boy asleep in an awkward position across the fire from us. "Who's that?"

She got up and walked over to him, kicked him, and when he didn't wake up, walked back over to me with a grin on her face. "That's Jay. He's mine and Drew's cousin."

•

•

•

It was almost 4:30, and I was about to fall asleep while I stared at that fire. My head rested on Elle's shoulder as I yawned.

Jack and Lindsey were still talking about whatever it is they were talking about. I was getting annoyed. How long do you need to keep him to yourself?

I would want to call this jealousy, but since I don't care enough to be jealous, nor do I have a reason to be jealous, I'm just calling it annoyance. Because it's true. I've only known Lindsey for a couple of hours, and she already annoys the crap out of me.

"We need to go home," I murmured to Elle. "Grandma Sherrie gets up at 5:30 to make breakfast. And because she can't control her bladder or some old person reason like that."

Ellen laughed weakly as she stood up, and walked over to Kristin, who was unfortunately asleep near her cousin on the sand.

Next, we tried Drew, who was now getting high with George. I found out that it turned out to be a joint and not a cigarette.

I would've tried Sammy, but that boy seems a little...off.

"Marty," we nudged him simultaneously. He was in the same state as us: about to fall asleep, bored out of his mind. He looked up at us with his eyes barely open. "We're gonna go home."

"Aw, why?" he asked, and yawned. "The party's just beginning."

I laughed. "Then how come you're about to pass out? Come on, we'll walk you home."

Ellen and I each took one of his hands and pulled him up. We passed Lindsey and Jack on our way out of the beach - who weren't actually doing much talking - and soon were near Marty's house.

We had passed Elle and I's house, but Marty could barely walk he was so tired, so we didn't mind the extra walk.

"Alright, Marty," Ellen laughed. "Here's your stop. G'night."

"Night, ladies," he slurred sleepily, almost zombie-like, as he sauntered into his house.

We made it back to the house in time before Gramma Sherrie noticed we were gone. That day, we slept in until 3:45 in the afternoon before Gramma Sherrie made us get up and leave the house.