One Day At A Time

Chapter Forty-Nine: Beach Day

When everyone wakes up on Saturday morning, they're all beyond excited for the day ahead of them.
The first day of Summer.

It's Lilly's job to pick everyone up and she gets herself ready quite fast.

She's about to leave when a knock at her bedroom door can be heard.
It's Louise, who stands in the doorway for a few moments.

"I know you're going on your little outing with your friends and I just wanted to say, I hope you all have a great time."

Lilly looks at her and for the first time ever, she doesn't instantly tense up.
She doesn't feel completely calm, there's still a little bit of worry in the back of her mind.

But it's definitely improvement.

"Thanks, that means a lot." She says, smiling.
Louise smiles back at her and she seems like she wants to say something else, keep the conversation going.

And it results in the simple question of,
"You're taking sunscreen with you, right? I don't want you to get burned."
Lilly is a step ahead of her, with a half-empty bottle of sunscreen already in her backpack.
"Yep."

"Well, alright, then." Louise says, nodding her head a little awkwardly.
She walks Lilly to the door when it's time to for her to leave and she sends her off with a hug that makes the both of them feel good.
They're working together, they're improving, growing, little by little.

Lilly picks everyone up and they've all brought their own beach bags.

"When will you get to drive us places?" Lucas asks Rose a little ways down the road.
"I still have a few more months of practicing and then I'll be good."
"So, by the time school starts?" Ava asks.
"Yep, pretty much."

That's crazy to think about.
They'll have two drivers in the friend group in a few months, when they're all seniors in high school.

But they don't get ahead of themselves, it's the first day of Summer.
They can worry about school in September.

The hour-long drive to the trails goes on nicely, save for Lucas' usual begging for the AUX cord.
Everyone caves in and let's him have it, which has them listening to bits and pieces of the, "Newsies" cast recording.

Soon enough, Lilly spots the, "Adventure awaits!" sign by the entrance and announces,
"We're here!" which gets a mixed reaction of relieved sighs and excited cheers.

And so begins their hike, which Ava and Lilly take the lead in as to not get lost.

This has the fringe benefit for Lucas to look at Ava and Lilly's clasped hands, then look at Rose and say,
"We did that." with a stupidly proud smile.

Rose just looks at him and rolls their eyes, stating the obvious with the comment of,
"You're a dork."

He is a dork, but a proud dork at that.

For Ava and Lilly, the trail seems shorter than the first time they hiked down it.
That works in their favor, because the end of the trail and the beach come sooner rather than later.

There are more people at the beach than when Ava and Lilly first came to it in March, but there's a pretty good sized area for them to spend their day.

They'd all planned to go swimming, which leads them to helping each other out with their sunscreen.
The last thing they want is for someone to go home achey and burnt.

Once their sunscreen is set in, they all walk towards the water, dipping their toes in.

"Woo! Holy shit!" Lucas yells, jumping back.
The water is definitely cold, but it's nicer than it was back in March.