Caramel Sundae

Nine

~NINE~

Days passed. They were spent lounging in the hammock, playing guitar, meeting up with friends, baking flapjacks and muffins and surfing and sunbathing on the beach (but mostly surfing). Before I knew it, two weeks had gone by since the end of school.

Because most other countries finished school later than we did, it meant that tourists were now flooding in by the boatful. The beach was steadily growing more packed, and each day it was a little bit harder to locate the best patch of sand to lay my towel down on. In some ways, I didn't like tourists so much; they took up space, they asked all these questions, more often than not in an accent that I couldn't understand. But then, I had to appreciate that they'd taken the time to come here, to Newbrooke; that they wanted to visit.

And, of course, at this time, business in the town was booming. For this reason, Dad, who ran a hardware shop at the end of Main Street, was around less than usual- while I wouldn't have thought that the tourists would be all too interested in buying tools and paint, apparently they were. And also, I guess, because people were thinking that it was a good time to fix the roof, or weed the garden, or whatever.

Which was why it was a surprise when I woke up to find Mom and Dad both sitting at the kitchen counter, mugs of steaming coffee in their hands as they discussed something.

"Morning," I greeted, glancing up at the clock on the wall. The solid red hands pointed to five past ten, by which time Dad was usually gone. I stifled a yawn and asked, "What are you doing home, Dad?"

Dad grinned, reaching over to ruffle my already uncontrollably messy hair as he said, "We've got a family reunion today at twelve. So I decided to leave my work in Kyle's hands for the day."

"Oh, a reunion? Where?"

We had one of these every summer, when all (or at least most) of Mom's family would gather together in someone's house for food, drinks and a lot of chatter. Two summers ago, we'd hosted it, and spent the whole day beforehand cutting sandwiches into neat triangles, preparing salads, making fruit punch and clearing the living room.

"At Holly's, this year," Mum replied, her expression happy; she hadn't seen her sister since the last reunion.

Summer was less than happy to find out about it, however.

"Another one?" she questioned wryly, when she had finally dragged herself out of bed (I doubted that she had been sleeping; she was probably texting her friends all that time).

"Yes, another one," Mom said firmly. "Don't look at me like that, Summer; you knew it was going to be happening soon."

"We have one every year!" she exclaimed.

Mom fixed her with a stern look. "And? I don't see why you wouldn't want to meet up with your cousins. It only happens once a year, Summer. I haven't seen Holly or Claire since then, so don't you think you should allow me to?"

"What if I already have plans?" Summer grumbled.

"Then you'll have to put them off for today; you have all the rest of the summer for them- come on, Summer," Mom sighed.

"Fine," Summer huffed.

I had to admit, it was nice to see that it wasn't just me that got on my parents' nerves; I mean, I'm pretty sure every sister liked to see their older sister getting told off, right? Or maybe I was just malicious; either way suits me.

~*~

"You've grown!"

I had to wait until after the bone-crushing hug that Claire gave me before I could speak, because she had squeezed all the air out of my lungs.