The Light Within [Completed]

Best Day Of My Life - Part 1

With a terrific crash, Mad Dog put the van in gear and pulled out of the Winters' driveway. "Yo, Mikey!" Dawson shouted, "Turn the radio on!" Mad Dog flicked the radio on, immediately filling the vehicle with the electronic pounding of Imagine Dragons.

"This is real music, Sol," Dawson said, "Not that hippie nonsense you listen to."

"Cat... hit him for me."

Cat snickered and Dawson gasped, "Come on, babe. You wouldn't do that to m- Ow!"

Sol laughed and Cat said in a smug voice, "Hey... pals before gals."

"What?" Meghan asked.

"Never mind," Cat said with an air of long suffering, "Y'all a bunch of uncultured goonies."

"I am so lost right now," Mad Dog said in a low voice, and Sol grinned.

"Oh!" Cat exclaimed, "I LOVE this song! Turn it up, Mad Dog."

Ooh, ooh...
Ooh, ooh...
I had a dream so big and loud, jumped so high I touched the clouds!

"Hey, I like this one too!" Sol said, drumming her fingers in time to the music.

"I didn't know you liked anything from this century." Sol just rolled her eyes at Dawson sang along with the chorus.

Ooh, ooh, ooh...
This is gonna be the best day of my life!

When the song finished, Meghan said, "You have a good voice, Solveigh. You should sing more often."

The others chorused in agreement, but Sol just shrugged and said, "Eh... I'm okay."

"No," Meghan insisted, "You're actually really good!"

"Oh, stop. You're gonna make me blush."

The conversation soon drifted to other things and Sol leaned back, feeling the wind blow against her face through the open window. She was happier right now than she'd been in a long, long time. When she closed her eyes, she could almost believe that the accident had never happened.

When they finally reached the beach, Mad Dog had to cruise up and down the street for a while before he found a parking space. "So much for getting here early," Cat said as he turned the van around for the second time.

"Living here this long you think we would know that Miami Beach is never not crowded," Brianna said with a wry laugh.

"Yeah," Sol sighed, "You'd think."

Eventually, they did find a space and everyone piled out of the van. Sol kept a hand on Mad Dog's arm as they moved down the boardwalk. She could manage with her stick, but she'd never had to use it in a crowd, and she didn't fancy crashing into someone.

Meghan had ran ahead to find a spot for them and now she ran up and called for them to follow. Sol had always loved the beach. The smell of the ocean, the sun on her skin, the sand between her toes... it was pretty much heaven. At least until she got sunburned. She burned super easy and she was always forgetting to put on sunscreen. She had never learned, no matter how many times had come home red as a beet.

This time, though, she did remember. After everyone had shed their outer clothes and put on way too much sun screen, Brianna shouted, "What are you guys waitin' for? Let's go!" Sol hesitated for a moment, but Cat grabbed her arm and hauled her after the others.

"Don't worry. I won't let you trip, girl!" Sol squealed as the cold water crashed into her legs, but soon she was shouting and splashing along with everyone else.

"This is the best day of my life!" she shouted.