A Queen Is Strong

Chapter 3

Hailey and I had just made it to the beach, a little late as usual. It was partially my fault– alright entirely my fault because I wanted to stop for a slushie.

When we did finally make it to our friends they swarmed us seeing the cardboard containers containing slushies.

That's right, we may be late, but at least we brought treats. Not that anyone would've say anything even if we hadn't brought anything. I'm always late, they know that, and by now they expect that.

After sitting around and talking for a while, and laughing over Lawson's recantation of last night's 'horrors,' we all went swimming.

Like usual there was a competition between the boys, and then we joined in to prove none of them were the 'best' because they could all be beat. There was never a declared winner because all of us gave up on actually trying and eventually focused on making sure the others didn't win.

When we were all tired we moved back to our stuff on the beach. We laid on our towels and let the heat of the sun dry us off, while absorbing all the tan we could get.

We eventually got bored and decided to walk the boardwalk. We decided to bring our beach stuff to the vehicles first so we didn't have to carry it around with us.

Once at the board walk we made our way through the shops. Trying on things we liked and things we thought were funny. Buying things we liked and also things we would probably never wear just because it was on sale.

Eventually we made our way last all the shops and to the restaurants. We all agreed to grab some food, settling for corn dogs and fries. We grabbed our food and moved to one of the picnic benches looking towards the water.

We sat there for about an hour, just joking around and hanging out. We talked about the party, and all the crazy things that happened.

Once we decided it was time to go, I suggested we get ice cream before we go. By suggested, I mean I didn't give them a choice before I grabbed two of them by the wrists and dragged them with me.

I walked straight to Tobi's Cones, which had been my favourite ice cream shop since I was 5. It was fairly busy, but we were still able to get a table. After we ordered we sat down to eat.

I noticed a sign on the wall beside us for a surfing contest happening two weeks from now, and pointed it out to everyone. I was excited and said I wanted to come and watch, and they rest nodded in approval and chorused their excitement.

With a plan to come back in a few weeks and empty bowls, we decided to head back to our vehicles.

I was slightly ahead of everyone and was turning around to talk with them. I guess someone else was doing the same thing as next thing I know I hit something. And I hid it hard enough to curse and lose my balance.

"Shit," I cursed stumbled backwards and one of my friends stabilized me by grabbing my arm.

"Sorry", I quickly said to the person in front of me "I wasn't looking when I was going."

As I looked at the person in front of me I saw the look of irritation, quickly change into one of recognition then amusement. As he showed me yet another smirk.

"Hello Amelia," Christiano says, not taking his eyes off me. I looked behind him to the 4 guys surrounding him. They all had looks on irritation on their faces like they didn't like interacting with other people. Which was funny because the board walk was the busiest place in town.

When they registered their friends voice, they looked at him with confusion.

"You know her?" One of the guys to Christiano's left asked.