Seven More

2. It Begins

When I reached the beach the triplets were wrestling with the volleyball net trying to put it up, whilst Eli just watched on laughing at them.

"You're quite cruel, you know that," I tutted at him, taking a spot next to him.

"I don't see you jumping to help them. Besides, they need to learn," he chuckled as Kai tripped over a pole.

"You know they'll only do it wrong," I rolled my eyes. Fortunately, Silver and Peyton stepped in to save the situation. I was slightly scared about playing volleyball against Peyton, she was after all captain of the volleyball team. And she was a sore loser.

"Bagsy being on Peyton's team!" I began running towards my beloved sister, but she didn't look amused.

"And I supposed you're prefer having anyone else on your team?" I signalled to our brawling brothers and she sighed, realising I was wright.

"I suppose you can stay," she rolled her eyes.

"How about two female captains, to make it even?" Vincent suggested, and immediately Peyton and Silver's heads shot round to glare at him.

"Are you suggesting that women are in some way different to me?" Silver grinned at him, but it was an insincere grin, full of malicious intent.

"You wouldn't possibly do that, would you Vincent?" Peyton wore a similar expression to Silver.

They may have been over reacting, but I could understand why. They were quite often the brunt of our jokes and far too frequently women and girls were thought to be less physically capable. No wonder they were so quick to lash out when they thought they were being attacked.

"I think he meant that you two have more experience with volleyball, since you're on the team. You two actually know what you're doing, unlike us," I attempted to save the situation.

"That is correct," Peyton nodded along.

Pretty soon everyone got impatient and bored of standing around talking, and so the game began. Vincent and Riley had made the wise decision to join our team whilst Silver, Kai, Eli and Blake had teamed together. Naturally, the competition got spirited.

Elijah and Peyton were undoubtedly the most competitive, but everyone could tell Peyton was significantly better than him.

"You'd think for someone so tall you'd hit the ball a little more," she teased him as he wore a stony expression.

"You'd think for someone so small you'd be a little less brave," he replied. I shot him a warning glance, but he didn't seem to care.

As predicted, the triplets were pretty useless at volleyball. Riley was too gangly to be able to control his body properly, whilst Blake was too busy getting distracted by birds to concentrate on the ball hurtling towards him.

Kai had somehow suddenly awoken his competitive streak, a side of him I rarely saw.

"Take that Chambers!" he shouted at Vincent as he hit the ball hard enough that Vincent missed it.

"This is so unfair," Vincent complained, doubled over and puffing for breath.

"No time for losers on this team!" Peyton complained as she passed him, moving to the front. She lost a significant amount of her compassion when she was in competition mode.

She served the ball, which was heading straight towards Silver, and it looked certain that she was going to hit it. Out of nowhere, Blake leapt in front of her and slapped the ball. The boy was a liability, he sent the ball hurtling over the net towards another group of people farther down the beach.