Honestly, Katherine hadn't been crazy about the 'beach house getaway' idea.
If she was even more honest, she couldn't believe her father had been the one to mention it to her, though she was almost certain it had been her mother's idea. In all seventeen years of her life, Katherine had never seen her father take an actual 'family' vacation.
(Because in her father's world, vacations were about showing off how much money one could spend while having the least amount of fun)
Regular-sized beach house in a tiny beach town she'd never heard of before? For the whole summer?
Had to be Mom's idea.
She might not have minded so much if Lucy were there, too. If nothing else, her sister was always a great buffer between Katherine and their father. But there was no Lucy. Just Katherine, her mother, her father, and the growing tension between the three of them.
Sighing, Katherine leaned her head against the window of the rented car as they pulled into the town. Shops with peeling paint blurred together in front of her eyes, bleeding into the too-bright sunshine.
She squinted, about to turn back to the book in her lap when a blur of chipped, rusted blue paint sped past them. Katherine straightened, craning her neck to get a better look at the old pick-up truck as they slowed to a stop next it.
"Damn teenagers," she heard her father mutter under his breath, but she was too busy peering curiously out her window, hoping she didn't appear too much like she was staring.
There were four or five boys in the bed of the truck, throwing things at each other and shoving each other good-naturedly. Her eyes slid from the bed to the front of the truck, where two people sat, the driver drumming his hands on the wheel.
Katherine was studying the decals stuck in the windows and the lanyard hanging over the rearview mirror so closely-she couldn't help it, she was curious by nature-that she almost didn't notice when the driver turned his head and caught her gaze.
He couldn't be much older than her, with dark hair and light eyes she couldn't quite figure out the color of and a broad, crooked smile, and-
Oh, shit, he was grinning at her, shooting her a wink.
Flushing bright red, Katherine dropped her eyes back to her lap, wishing she could melt into the backseat as the light finally changed and they drove away.
~*~
"Go out and explore, Katherine!" her mother had insisted. "Meet the locals, you can't stay cooped up inside, reading all day. Go have fun!"
Well, Mom hadn't said she couldn't take her book to the beach, so Katherine shoved her book, sunglasses, a towel, and sunblock-she spent maybe fifteen minutes outside yesterday, not even in direct sunlight, and, already, her shoulders were pink-in a bag, wrangled a beach umbrella, and found her way to the beach, finding a relatively quiet spot and setting up camp.
Annabeth had barely made it across the chasm with her rope bridge, however, when a soccer ball came to a rolling stop by her elbow.
Before she could look up, a small voice was already saying, "Sorry, sorry! I got it!"
Pushing her sunglasses on top of her head, Katherine held the spot in her book with a finger and looked up to see a young boy, stooping to pick up the ball. "You're fine," she reassured with a smile. "Barely scratched me."
The boy finally met her eyes, freezing at her voice, looking at her like a deer in the headlights-she assumed anyways, since she'd never actually seen a deer.
