On Kindness

Chapter 15

It was a wonderful day for the beach– the sky was a clear, piercing blue; the sun was still (somewhat) high in the sky; cool breeze whipped through the shore; and the soft ocean waves lapped gently onto the sand. Brick admired the general beach atmosphere, as he ran after his brothers toward the rest of their friends. Many people had already arrived, but the trio found a nice spot to set down their bags and set up three chairs.

"Are we gonna eat yet?" Boomer asked.

"You just got here, and it's only four," Brick replied.

"Your point?" Boomer raised an eyebrow, then left in search of a bag of chips.

"So, what now?" Brick asked, but his question was answered by someone calling his name. He turned and spotted Bubbles running up to him, followed by Buttercup and Blossom. The first girl was wearing a small white T-shirt, under which she seemed to be sporting a very nice blue bikini, as Brick quickly noted. Buttercup seemed to be wearing something of similar nature but with board shorts, although Brick couldn't really imagine her wearing a bikini. Meanwhile the third sister was wearing a sundress on top of a swimsuit, and Brick really couldn't imagine her wearing a bikini, not that he really wanted to anyway.

They all greeted each other, after which Bubbles remarked, "It's such a nice day for the beach, huh? You know, we should all go up to those rocks later." She pointed at a twenty-foot tall rock formation, which many kids were already climbing. "You can get a great view of the sunset," she explained.

However, she was interrupted by Buttercup's raising voice, "Oh yeah? Well then, I bet...I can beat you at beach volleyball!"

Butch, for whom the challenge was intended, replied, "You're on! Why don't make this a little tournament? Winning team gets all-you-can-eat dibs on the food."

"Isn't this all-you-can-eat anyway? I mean, no one's gonna stop you from eating ten hot dogs."

"Shut up! You know what I mean! Like all-you-can-eat with no one complaining or saying anything or... whatever."

"You're on then," Buttercup responded, grinning. "Hey, Mitch, c'mere!"

"What?" her boyfriend asked, jogging over.

"You and me are gonna beat this ass–" she pointed at Butch "at volleyball. A tournament," she explained.

"Okay," Mitch shrugged, always willing to humor his girlfriend when sports were involved. Soon word spread that a beach volleyball tournament was going to take place, with the promise of all the food you could eat as the prize. ("But we brought most of this food!" Lloyd and Floyd complained.) The participating party-goers formed themselves into teams of two, and it was established that each game would be played to 15, as 21 would take too long.

"I'll team up with Blossom," Brick declared, to everyone's surprise. Now that he and Blossom weren't screaming their heads off at the sight of each other, this was his chance to become her friend. Then everything would be okay, and he could ask Bubbles out...but, of course, first things first. He turned expectantly to Blossom, who was also surprised but accepted nonetheless.

"Then I wanna go with Bubbles," Boomer chimed. She accepted, of course, but Brick could hear poorly disguised disappointment mixed in with her words. If only she knew that he was trying to become friends with a stuck-up bi– scratch that– her sister just for her.

"Wait, but who am I supposed to go with?" Butch asked, seeing that everyone he knew already had a partner.

"No partner, no game, immediate disqualification," Buttercup smirked.

"Better make a friend, and fast," Boomer chuckled, as Butch sped off to threaten some poor soul to be his partner.

The tournament then started, and while on the sidelines, Brick tried to make small talk, "So...Blossom, you any good at volleyball?"