Saving our Kingdom

The boys and the girls

A sign reading "WELCOME TO BRINY BEACH, PLEASE TAKE CARE" is stuck onto a pole that has been stabbed into the ground, oh I will take care.

"Okay, so this is our island, ladies. Although its top secret and absolutely nobody can know about its existence, clear?" Rafe has always been very stuck up, arrogant some would say, Terri seems to see a lot more in him than just his looks.

"Crystal, sir" I say quietly. An almost silent scoff comes from behind me; Bobby. I turn to see him with his arms crossed and staring at me, smirking "I'm sorry, is there something you want to say? Please share?" Well, being shy around him is out of the window, although why should I be nice to him, he didn't talk to me for the whole journey.

"Oh nothing Carmen. Its just that you're just as arrogant as I remember you to be." That hits me like a truck and it feels like someone's just punched me in the stomach. I'm not arrogant, not around him anyway, never have, never will be.

"Excuse me?" Again. He just scoffs. Terri knows there's trouble and intervenes before it gets any worse, thank god she did. I would have slapped him. "Hey, look the beach is just over head" I walk past her and nod appreciatively. I catch up with Bobby "Please talk to me. We haven't seen each other in a whole year and suddenly you have this aversion to talking to me. What's you're problem?" He turns back around to face me and we are almost as close as we were in the corridor "You are, you didn't seem happy to see me and all the time I was gone, not once did you contact me Carmen! Not once!" I don't understand where this has come from, we hadn't talked since the punch incident. If he was so obsessed with talking to me again, why didn't he make the move on me first? "What? You don't even like me! And if you do you're not doing a very good job of showing it, you didn't even try to talk to me on the way up here!"

"Of course I like you. You pouring punch over me wasn't going to change my opinion of you. I didn't know what to do. I'm sorry."
"Why didn't you talk to me then, for the whole period leading up to when you left? How can you explain that?"
"I don't know, I'm so sorry, I can't explain it. I'm stupid." He likes me? He can't, no. I... "You are right. You're so stupid." I giggle and shove him and for a moment the whole world stops and the sound of the crashing sea is silenced and we are both just stood there, looking at each other. The summer light bounces off of his brown hair, causing it to go a deep shade of auburn and it flickers in the breeze like a fire licking at wood. He is beautiful.

As we walk on, small purple flowers begin to appear everywhere, on the ground, even growing in the sand. Over the golden banks appears the most beautiful beach my eyes have ever seen. The harbour is nothing compared to this. The aqua- marine coloured sea dances in the bright sunlight and therefore allowing you to see everything under the surface of the water, every rock, every grain of sand, clear to the naked eye. The trees surrounding the beach look like something out of the bible and the rich green leaves dance in the summer's breeze. I look up and see a bird fluttering around in the clear sky, its wings spread, gliding through the air, its body perfectly stream- lined and its heartbeat beating faster than its two wings. Like the bird, adrenaline gets the better of me and I jump down the sand banks and run to the waters edge, followed by everybody else, I kick my shoes off and let them soak in the glistening, cool water. I turn around to face Terri my face expression taken over by happiness, then to Bobby, I smile and he smiles back and nods, then to Rafe who laughs and starts stripping. Terri joins hands with Rafe, Rafe with me and me with Bobby. We all run in together and dive in, my head is engulfed by freezing cold water and for a minute I stay underwater, looking around, my eyes wide open. Wider than they've ever been before.

~