Cam Cameron // The Oceans in our Hearts

20

Today is the charity volleyball match. Cam has agreed to be my partner. Belly is competing with Taylor and Steven is playing with Shayla. Cam picks me up and we get down to the beach early to practice. We are both decent but not as good as Belly and Taylor so we accept we won't win but we want to raise as much money as we can. I practice setting to him and he practices spiking. Our height difference isn't huge but he's definitely got a stronger arm on him. It's a bit frustrating at first but Cam is so patient and clear that I know our teamwork will make the dream work.

Belly and Taylor soon arrive with Jeremiah and we immediately wrap arms around each other.

"You guys look so cute!" Belly whispers during our hug.

"So what's up with you and Belly taking each others sloppy seconds?" Taylor asks.

"Taylor!" Belly and I yell in unison.

"What? It's true," she defends herself with a shrug. "I'm team Grayson" Taylor whispers. I raise my brows. "Ya know, Grace and Cameron. Grayson," she explains. I just laugh at her. "Okay whatever, but for real you guys are cute."

"Thank you," I giggle.

"And I'm so team Jellyfish." I raise my brows again. "Ugh, this one is so obvious," she groans making me laugh.

"It's good to have you here Taylor," I laugh.

"I know," she smirks. "I feel like you and Cameron make more sense though. He's dorky and you're nerdy. He's cute and you're hot," she explains. I laugh and nudge her. "What? It's true!"

After we catch up, Cam and I play with them to get a sense of playing in real time. Soon I see Steven and Conrad arrive as well.

Once I see Shayla, I take a little break to talk to her.

"Hey!" I wave jogging over.

"Hey girl!" She replies.

"Are you a good player?"

"No not really, Im not too bad though. I'm just glad i'm here with Steven," she smiles.

"Awww, you'll do great today."

"So what about you? I see Cam is here," she winks.

"Yes, we have been kind of dating..." I trail off.

"What? Finally!" she exclaims giving me a hug. "Now we can have double dates," she jokes but im sure it wasn't fully a joke.

"Relax, it was just one date. I've been training him today to help me crush you," I remind competitively.

"Okay, yeah," she laughs. We say good luck before I head back over. The games start soon and we are on the sides watching the first few.

"Good luck," Conrad tells me.

"Thanks," I say giving him a fist bump.

"Hey Gracie, you got this!" Jeremiah says with a ruffle of my hair. I simply nod and walk away.

Once I get to Cam, he rests his arm around my shoulder. "We must observe and analyze," he says slowly looking out to the game. I laugh at him.

"Yes, we need to gather intel and defeat the enemies," I respond in the same tone.

"Look right there," he says pointing to the girl on the court. "She's got a great spike but she sucks at receiving." I watch the play and he was right.

"Wait you're right," I look up at him with my arms crossed.

"When you're working at the country club as ball boy, you pick up a few things," he explains. I scoff impressed. "Hey I'm full of surprises," he winks. I lean up and let my lips touch his ear softly.

"If we win, I'll give you a surprise," I whisper seductively. He gulps and I can feel his arm on me tense up a bit. He simply nods furiously and then gets into game mode. We play our first game with the duo we spotted earlier and served mostly to the girl who couldn't receive earning us a win on the game. We played another duo and won using setter dumps because they always stayed farther back. We won another game just barely based on luck. Then, we were up to play Shayla and Steven.

"That last game was pure luck," I say before taking a drink of my water. Cam nods drinking his.

"Gracie!" I hear. I look over and it's my big, Olivia. I walk over and greet her.

"You're doing so so good! I'm so proud of you!" She cheers. "Look!" she says before revealing a poster with my name on it.

"Oh my gosh, Olivia that's adorable!" I thank her. "I would hug you but ya know," I say referring to my sweat.

"I don't care!" she says throwing her arms around me. "Go keep rocking it!" she says pushing me back into the action.

I run back over to Cam. "So what've you got babe?" I ask.

"Well Steven—" he pauses and looks at me. "Babe?" he asks smirking. I roll my eyes.

"It just fit with the flow of the question," I shove his shoulder. He continues to smirk. "Go!" I yell urging him to continue.

"Yeah, sure babe," he says with his finger swiping my chin. "Steven overshoots his spikes so it's a 50/50 that they go out, And Shayla can't receive with her left." I nod and take in the information.

"Got it," I say. We do a small handshake we came up with earlier and wait to be called. On the way to the court, I smack Cam's ass and he turns to me and raises his brows. "Couldn't help it," I shrug. He waits for me to catch up before stealing a kiss on my lips making my knees go a little weak.

"Couldn't help it," he whispers with dark eyes before walking again. I bite my lip and try to get my head back into the game.